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YANGON: Myanmar’s military-backed constitution was
approved by 92.4 percent in a widely condemned referendum held
everywhere except regions hardest hit by Cyclone Nargis, state
television said Thursday.
“We announce the results of the
referendum, with 92.4 percent casting Yes ballots,” said a
statement from Aung Toe, head of the committee that organized the
vote.
More than 99 percent of the 22.5
million voters eligible to vote on May 10 cast their ballots, it
said.
Regions devastated by the
cyclone, which left 66,000 dead or missing, are set to vote on May
24, even though the United Nations estimates two million people are
still in desperate need of food, water and shelter.
Detained democracy leader Aung
San Suu Kyi’s party has denounced the regime for holding the vote
while aid is only trickling to ruined villages and emergency
shelters.
“Millions of people are in
great trouble. The survivors are in grief while their health is
gradually worsening,” her National League for Democracy (NLD) said
in a statement late Wednesday, hours before the results were
announced.
“The holding of the referendum
is completely inappropriate in this situation,” it said.
The NLD says the constitution,
which the military hails as a step toward democratic elections in
2010, will only enshrine the power of the generals, who have ruled
the country for nearly half a century.
The last time there was a
national ballot, in 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi won in a landslide. She
was never allowed to rule, and instead has been under house arrest
for much of the time since.
Among its provisions, the
constitution would make it illegal for her to ever hold office.
The international community,
including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, had urged the junta to
focus on the cyclone relief effort instead of using the nation’s
scant resources to hold the vote.
But the regime ploughed ahead,
setting up voting booths close to makeshift camps for the homeless,
while denying most of the visas requested by international aid
workers to deliver supplies to cyclone victims.
--AFP
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