Myanmar parliament's Upper House on Thursday adopted a draft nationwide referendum law on constitution amendment, parliament sources said.

According to Speaker of the Parliament U Shwe Mann, the referendum is to be held in May next year and ahead of the referendum. The parliament is to work out a draft constitution amendment law to undergo the nationwide referendum on whether the amendment should be adopted.

The Lower House passed the draft nationwide referendum law a week ago.

The result of the nationwide referendum on whether the constitution be changed or not will be applied in the next parliament term produced from the upcoming general election in 2015, which will retain to be held under the existing 2008 constitution without timely application of the amended constitution.

In recent parliament debate over amendment to the constitution, the non-elected military MPs, who account for 25 percent of the legislative body, opposed the widespread call for constitutional change including the change of two sensitive sections -- Section- 436 and Section 59 (f).

Section-436 prescribes that amendment to the constitution needs the approval of more than 75 percent of all parliament members, while Section 59 (f) bars anyone from the presidency whose parents, spouse, legitimate offspring or spouse of offspring are foreign citizens.

Meanwhile, the main opposition National League for Democracy, in collaboration with the 88-Generation Students Peace and Open Society, launched a two-month nationwide signature campaign from May 27 to July 19 in support of amendment to Section-436.

The campaign collected nearly 5 million signatures which have been presented to parliament in August for consideration.

The 194-page 15-chapter Republic of the Union of Myanmar Constitution 2008 was promulgated by the previous military government in May 2008.

The next general election is set to take place near the end of 2015. Endi

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