YANGON - MYANMAR'S junta urged citizens on Friday to do their patriotic duty and vote for an army-drafted constitution, without mentioning the 1.5 million people clinging to survival a week after a devastating cyclone.

'If you are patriotic and you love your nation you must give an affirmative vote,' state-run MRTV announced.

The constitution, which goes before most of the former Burma's 53 million people on Saturday, is a key step in the military's seven-stage 'roadmap to democracy'.

But it has been widely derided by the opposition and Western governments as the generals trying to legitimise the grip on power they have held since first seizing control of the country in 1962.

The referendum is the first national vote since the 1990 election, which they lost by a landslide to Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.

Popular singers, actors and musicians accompanied the MRTV broadcast, spouting slogans such as: 'Approval of the draft constitution is the responsibility of every citizen, so go to the polling booth and approve the constitution.'

'Crazy'
The government said on Tuesday it would go ahead with the vote in parts of the country not affected by Cyclone Nargis, but postponed it by two weeks in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta and the city of Yangon and its outskirts.

In Yangon, the storm-ravaged former capital city of five million, people were stunned by the ruling generals' decision to proceed.

'It shows how unreasonable and crazy they can be. They just want to celebrate victory even though the people are suffering,' one shop owner said.

As with most people, he asked not to be identified for fear of recriminations.

'It makes no difference to me - I've decided to vote 'no' no matter when they hold it,' he added.

Most people in and around Yangon are still far too busy trying to patch up their lives to think about politics.

'The only thing on our minds is getting enough food and water for our families,' one carpenter in the city's eastern suburbs said.

'I'm not going to vote. I don't have time.'

Diplomats and disaster experts said the death toll from Nargis could rise as high as 100,000. The United Nations says 1.5 million people have been 'severely affected'.

State-run radio and TV have not updated the official toll since Tuesday, when it stood at 22,980 and 42,119 missing.

Myanmar exiles in neighbouring Thailand accuse the junta of deliberately stalling because they do not want an influx of foreigners into the countryside during the referendum.

The new charter gives the military an automatic 25 per cent of seats in parliament, control of key ministries and right to suspend the constitution at will.

Suu Kyi's party demands Myanmar delay vote, but junta defiant
Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party has urged Myanmar's junta to postpone Saturday's constitutional referendum in the wake of a deadly cyclone, but the generals have vowed to press ahead despite the outcry.

The military has insisted that a vote on its proposed constitution - part of a slow-moving 'roadmap' to democracy - will take place in most of the country as scheduled, except in areas worst affected by Cyclone Nargis which hit a week ago.

The government says about 65,000 people are dead or missing, mostly in the swampy Irrawaddy delta which bore the brunt of the cyclone, but the United States says the true death toll could pass 100,000.

The junta postponed voting in 47 locations, including the main city of Yangon, until May 24, but the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) said holding it at all was unacceptable and that the regime should focus on the recovery effort.

'With this situation, it is not the appropriate time to hold the referendum,' NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.

UN chief Ban Ki Moon on Thursday also urged the junta to instead put its resources into the campaign to assist more than a million people left homeless and hungry, echoing calls from the United States and Europe.

But such pleas appeared to fall on deaf ears, as did criticism that the regime is jeopardising the lives of many more people by refusing to allow in foreign aid experts to direct the recovery effort.

Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate who has been held under house arrest for most of the past 20 years, and her party have called on voters to reject the document, which they say will do nothing to end decades of military rule.

'We did not change, we are still asking the people to vote 'No' at tomorrow's referendum,' Mr Nyan Win said on Friday.

They and other pro-democracy groups have been largely unable to campaign, however, as the generals have outlawed speeches and leaflets about the referendum. -- REUTERS, AFP