On 19 February 2008, ten weeks after its first meeting, the drafting commission chaired by the Chief Justice announced the completion of the draft constitution based on detailed principles set the National Convention (see box). Meanwhile, the SPDC announced, on 9 February, that a constitutional referendum would be conducted in May with “multi-party democracy general elections” scheduled for 2010. The “Referendum Law” was promulgated on 26 February together with the formation of a fortyfive-member “Commission for Holding Referendum for the Approval of the Draft Constitution”. On 9 April, it was announced that the referendum would be held on 10 May. These measures thereby effectively bypassed the political dialogue process between DASSK and the government initiated in 2007 by Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the special advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General.
Although a large portion of the fertile Ayeyarwady Delta and most of Yangon Division were devastated by the tropical cyclone Nargis on 2 and 3 May 2008, the referendum was carried out in the unaffected areas (278 townships) as scheduled on 10 May. It was rescheduled for 24 May in the affected region (47 townships). The consolidated results announced on 26 May confirmed that the overall turnout was 98.12 per cent and the draft constitution was voted in by an overwhelming 92.48 per cent of the total votes cast. This paved the way for the government to fulfill its promise to hold fresh elections by 2010.