Myanmar voters do their "patriotic duty"

By Aung Hla Tun

HLEGU, Myanmar (Reuters) - With explicit orders to vote "yes" to an army-drafted constitution, nervous voters turned out on Saturday for the first exercise in democracy in military-ruled Myanmar in nearly two decades.

After weeks of relentless exhortations to the country's 53 million people to do their "patriotic duty" and approve the charter, state television ran a final Burmese-style "get the vote out" propaganda blitz.

"Let's go voting" and "Come along for voting", five jaunty actresses sang to a boppy disco beat on army-controlled MRTV.

The message was more explicit on the front page of the New Light of Myanmar, the main mouthpiece of a military that has ruled the impoverished southeast Asian nation with an iron fist for the last 46 years.

"To approve the state constitution is the national duty of the entire people today," the paper said.

Later on Saturday, Myanmar's top General Than Shwe made his first appearance on TV since Cyclone Nargis slammed the southwestern Irrawaddy delta and the former capital Yangon.

He was shown at a voting booth with other generals in Naypyidaw, the remote new capital 400 km (250 miles) north of Yangon.

Despite some dismay at the generals' decision to proceed with the vote only a week after the death and destruction wreaked by the storm, the message appeared to have hit home.