YANGON: Polling stations opened Saturday in parts of cyclone-hit Myanmar, as the military regime asked voters to approve a new constitution just one week after tens of thousands of people died in the storm.

The military delayed the vote for two weeks in the areas hardest-hit by Cyclone Nargis, including in the main city and former capital of Yangon.

But the ruling generals pushed ahead with the referendum in other parts of the country, with polling stations visited by AFP open by 6:15 am (2345 GMT).

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The referendum is the first vote here since 1990, when detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi led her National League to Democracy (NLD) to a landslide victory in elections, a result the junta has never recognised.

The regime says the constitution will clear the way for democratic elections in two years, but the NLD says it will entrench military rule and has urged voters to reject the charter.

The junta has ignored the NLD's calls to delay the balloting and focus instead on helping the 1.5 million people still in desperate need of aid in the wake of the cyclone. - AFP/ac

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