Myanmar junta urges patriotic "yes" in referendum

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - 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".

The process is meant to culminate in multi-party elections in 2010 and bring to an end nearly five decades of military rule in the Southeast Asian country.

But it has been widely derided by the opposition and Western governments as the generals trying to legitimize 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 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.