Myanmar holds poll despite post-cyclone chaos

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar held a rare election to approve a new army-drafted constitution on Saturday while many of the 1.5 million survivors of a devastating cyclone waited in vain for a concerted aid effort to bring them food and medicine.

Though nervous voters were under orders to vote "yes" to a constitution that will enshrine a dominant role for the ruling military, it was the first real election in the former Burma in nearly two decades.

Army-controlled MRTV ran a final Burmese-style "get the vote out" propaganda blitz featuring jaunty actresses singing "Let's go voting" and "Come along for voting" to a boppy disco beat.

While the junta relentlessly focused on the poll, thousands of survivors of the cyclone that hammered Myanmar a week ago waited for food, medicine and shelter.

Ten thousand hungry and bedraggled refugees have turned up in Myaung Mya, west of Yangon, and their numbers were swelling by the day despite a lack of food and shelter, an aid volunteer said on Saturday.

The government has provided no help and the town cannot cope, residents say. "We have 900 people here but we only have 300 lunch boxes. We gave it to the women and children first. The men still have not had any food," the aid volunteer told Reuters.

PROTESTS AGAINST REFERENDUM

Protesters in Japan, Malaysia and Thailand denounced the junta for holding the referendum in disregard for the suffering of what the United Nations has estimated to be 1.5 million "severely affected" cyclone survivors.