State radio said the constitution was approved in the May 9 referendum, a week after the Irrawaddy delta and the main city of Yangon were struck by a devastating cyclone that has left up to 2.5 million people still in urgent need of food, water and shelter.

Critics say the charter will cement nearly four decades of military rule in the country, also known as Burma.

“This is really insulting to the people of Burma,” said David Mathieson, a spokesman for Human Rights Watch in Bangkok, Thailand. “There is simply no way that 92 percent ... would have voted ‘yes’ on a document that they know very little about and that most have never read.”

Aung Toe, head of the Referendum Holding Committee, gave the figure on state radio Thursday, adding that voter turnout was more than 99 percent.

The White House on Thursday dismissed the controversial referendum held in Myanmar which authorities said gave a 92.4 percent backing to the country’s military-backed constitution.

“We have expressed our strong concerns about the legitimacy of the constitution and referendum since the beginning. The conduct of the referendum gave us no reason to change our position,” said U.S. national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

“We hope the junta will focus on getting help to their people,” said Johndroe who was in Jerusalem with U.S. President George W. Bush “That’s what the United States is focused on.”

There were few signs of long lines to vote that would support such a high figure. The referendum itself was slammed by human rights and anti-government groups as a sham, with widespread reports of intimidation of voters and ballot box stuffing. There was no independent monitoring of the vote.

The fear of the military, which has ruled since 1962, was so great that few people were expected to vote “no” despite a campaign by pro-democracy activists to oppose the constitution.

Balloting was postponed in the Irrawaddy and Yangon regions, where more than 60,000 people are dead and missing from the May 2-3 cyclone. The Red Cross says the toll may be more than 128,000.

Aung Toe said 5 million citizens are eligible to vote May 24 in the two areas. But results from the late balloting could not mathematically reverse the constitution’s approval with only a simple majority needed among a total of 27 million eligible voters.

“To everyone in the delta — in the 47 affected townships where the vote is being delayed — this is basically saying you might as well not turn out,” Mathieson said.

He said the junta obviously hopes that announcing the results now will divert attention from its failure to deliver aid to cyclone victims properly and its refusal to cooperate with the international community.

“It seems strategically timed because you would have thought with how busy they were in cleaning up the cyclone that they never would have had time to count this properly,” Mathieson said.

The junta says the constitution will pave the way for a general election in 2010. The constitution guarantees 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military and allows the president to hand over all power to the military in a state of emergency — elements that critics say defy the junta’s professed commitment to democracy.

The constitution would bar Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of the country’s pro-democracy movement, from public office. The military refused to honor the results of the 1990 general election won by her National League for Democracy party.

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