"Myanmar’s prominent Catholic Church leader has appealed to the government to scrap the constitutional provision which prohibits members of religious orders from voting in elections. Cardinal Charles Bo lamented Article 392(a) of the constitution that prohibits Buddhist monks and nuns, Catholic priests, nuns and religious, other Christian clergy, Muslim clerics and others from the right to vote. In a written appeal released on Thursday, Archbishop of Yangon appealed to the government of Myanmar to change. Voting, a “Sacred duty” “As a cardinal, I can make statements and speeches and encourage citizens to vote,” he said but pointed to the irony that he himself is “barred from voting”. “This is an extremely unusual arrangement. I am not aware of any other democracy in which this is a requirement,” he said. Cardinal Bo’s statement comes in view of the general elections, expected in late 2020, as the Southeast Asian nation is in transition to democracy after decades of military rule. Describing voting as “a sacred duty” and “a sacred pilgrimage of human dignity” of the people of Myanmar, he warned that “those who shirk this sacred responsibility do at their own peril”. For the people of Myanmar, he said, voting is “a sacred pilgrimage in this golden land to strengthen their human dignity and common good”. Cardinal Bo, who is also president of the Confederation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC), said that as a religious leader, it was not his duty to identify parties or leaders to support..."