YANGON, MYANMAR — In this cyclone-ravaged country where most people have more important things on their minds, like the daily struggle for fresh water, food and shelter, Myanmar's ruling generals sent their people to the polls Saturday to vote on a constitution that opponents call a cynical attempt to maintain the military government's grip on power.
The regime says that the vote to approve the new constitution, held in parts of the country that weren't affected by last weekend's devastating storm, is part of its road map to "discipline-flourishing genuine multiparty democracy."
But critics charge that the constitution, drafted by a 54-member commission handpicked by the government, is a stacked deck: mandating a role for the military and banning detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from running for office because her late husband was a foreigner.
Amid images of voters casting ballots, state-run television broadcast video of Senior Gen. Than Shwe and other generals handing out boxes of aid to survivors of the cyclone. In case anyone missed the point, the boxes were plastered with the generals' names.
The military regime, which has been in power since 1962, has refused to grant visas to most foreign aid workers eager to get into the disaster zone to assess survivors' health and housing needs, and coordinate the delivery of medicine, food, shelter and building materials.
More than 23,000 people died, officials have said, with tens of thousands still missing.
The generals went ahead with the referendum despite a warning Friday from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that they should "concentrate their very limited resources, time and energy on saving lives and reconstructing their country."
"Then I think they can do the referendum at a later date," he said.
The government postponed the referendum in Yangon, the country's largest city, and the rest of the country's cyclone-hit south until May 24.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, has not had a vote in nearly two decades. The last elections were in 1990, when Suu Kyi stunned the regime by winning in a landslide; the generals annulled the results and jailed many of the victors.
Criticizing the regime is still a crime punished with a stiff jail sentence. The people rarely have anything good to say about the generals, and those willing to talk about the vote in Yangon on Saturday spoke on condition they not be named.
