Date:06/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/06/stories/2008050660681500.htm

International

Referendum as scheduled

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: The National League for Democracy (NLD) on Monday called for the postponement of the May 10 referendum on the military-scripted constitutional draft.

Speaking to The Hindu from Yangon, NLD spokesman U Nyan Win expressed concern over the havoc wrought by the cyclone.

“This is not the right time to hold the referendum,” he said.

As many parts of the country, including Yangon, were declared “disaster areas, we want a postponement.”

The government had declared that the referendum “will go on” as scheduled.

Mr. Nyan Win said the NLD would not call for a boycott. “If we stay away, generation after generation will suffer underdictatorship.”