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Huge support for referendum: junta

YANGON (Myanmar): Myanmar’s junta announced on Thursday that its new, pro-military Constitution has won overwhelming support in a referendum held while the country was reeling from a devastating cyclone that may have killed up to 1,28,000 persons.

State radio said 92.4 per cent of the 22 million voters approved the Constitution, dismissed by critics as a sham designed to solidify the military’s rule. It gave voter turnout as 99 per cent.

Voting was postponed until May 24 in the Irrawaddy delta and Yangon areas, both battered by Cyclone Nargis. State radio said results of the late balloting could not mathematically reverse the approval. Human rights groups have dismissed the vote, which was held on May 9, as a sham because in a country ruled by the feared military since 1962, few would have dared to reject the Constitution. The voting was also marred by widespread complaints of intimidation and rigging.

The junta says the Constitution will lead to an election in 2010. But it guarantees 25 per cent of seats to the military and allows the President to hand over power to the military in a state of emergency.

“People are dying and they are talking about the referendum?” said Kyaw Muang, a small food store owner in Yangon. “They [the generals] don’t even care about dying people, you think they care about democracy for the living?” — AP

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