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YANGON, Myanmar-Myanmar announced Thursday that a constitution won massive support in a referendum-a claim slammed by a leading rights group as an insult to the country's people.The document, which critics say will cement nearly four decades of military rule, was approved by 92.4 percent of the 22 million eligible voters last Saturday, said Aung Toe, head of the Referendum Holding Committee on state radio. He put voter turnout at more than 99%.The vote has also come under fire for being held while the country responds to a massive cyclone that has killed tens of thousands of people.''This is really insulting to the people of Burma,'' said David Mathieson, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch in Bangkok, Thailand, using an alternative name for Myanmar.''There is simply no way that 92 percent ... would have voted 'yes' on a document that they know very little about and that most have never read,'' said Mathieson.Human rights organizations and anti-government groups have bitterly criticized the government for going ahead with the vote, accusing it of neglecting cyclone victims to advance its political agenda.Following the balloting, local journalists said they saw cases of intimidation of voters at various polling stations around the country.The fear of the military, which has ruled since 1962, was so great that few among those who voted were expected to vote ''no,'' despite a campaign by pro-democracy activists to oppose the constitution.Voting on the referendum was postponed to May 24 in Yangon and the Irrawaddy delta, the region worst hit by Cyclone Nagris that the United Nations says may have killed more than 100,000 people.But the results of the late balloting cannot mathematically affect the outcome.Only a simple majority among a total of 27 million eligible voters was needed to approve the constitution.''To everyone in the delta-in the 47 effected townships where the vote is being delayed-this is basically saying you might as well not turn out,'' Mathieson said.He said the junta hopes that announcing the results now would divert attention from its failure to deliver aid to cyclone victims properly and its refusal to cooperate with the international community.''It seems strategically timed because you would have thought with how busy they were in cleaning up the cyclone that they never would have had time to count this properly,'' he said.The ruling junta has said the constitution will be followed in 2010 by a general election.But the document guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the armed forces in a state of emergency-elements critics say contradict the junta's professed commitment to democracy.The constitution would bar Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of the country's pro-democracy movement, from public office. The military refused to honor the results of the 1990 general election won by her National League for Democracy party.The editor of a respected Myanmar newsmagazine who had reporters stationed around the country said the information he received showed the vote was not completely free and fair.''The essence of secrecy is totally lost in some of the polling booths,'' said the editor, who also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.He said his reporters saw officials telling voters, ''Don't forget to put the tick, the right mark,'' as they got ready to cast their ballots.Voting officials also would sometimes pull aside the curtains protecting the privacy of the voting booths, in addition to asking voters to affix their fingerprints on the ballot papers. Other journalists witnessed voters clutching three or four national registration cards, which they exchanged for an equal number of ballots, a violation of voting rules.PS:May the LORD HAVE MERCY on the POOR PEOPLE OF MYANMAR BEING OPPRESSED BY THESE JUNTA WICKED MEN....
As in the days of Noah....
