Even by the standards of an oppressive dictatorship it was an astonishing result: the Burmese junta announced yesterday that 92 per cent of voters had said “yes” to its plans for a new constitution.

The referendum result was announced as new storm rains threatened even greater misery for the survivors of the cyclone that killed tens of thousands of people two weeks ago. It was immediately denounced as a crude fix by Burmese opposition groups, foreign diplomats and human rights organisations.

Meanwhile, foreign governments and international aid groups continued without success to pressure the Government to allow in large-scale emergency supplies to the estimated two million people whose homes or livelihoods were destroyed by Cyclone Nargis.

“We will stop at nothing in trying to pressure the regime into doing what any regime should have done long ago,” Gordon Brown said yesterday. “That is in the interests of the people of the country ... allowing the aid to reach them.”

The referendum was held last Saturday on a new constitution that is supposed to lead to democratic elections in 2010. Opponents of the regime say that it will merely apply a veneer of democracy to continuing military dominance of government.

Burmese state radio announced that 92.4 per cent of voters supported the proposed new constitution and that more than 99 per cent of the 22 million voters had turned out to vote.

“This is really insulting to the people of Burma,” David Mathieson, of the campaigning group Human Rights Watch, said in Bangkok. “There is simply no way that 92 per cent would have voted 'yes' on a document that they know very little about and that most have never read.”

The near-universal turnout is difficult to believe in a country in which many people live in poor rural areas long distances from polling centres. The limited numbers of foreign diplomats who were escorted under supervision to selected polling stations did not report long queues or crowds that might have indicated a huge turnout.

“If you just remove the people whose transport broke down on the way to the polling station, or who were sick that day, you'd be under 99 per cent,” a foreign diplomat said. “These figures are so completely unbelievable that they make the point for us - this was not a fair referendum.”

In Rangoon yesterday, UN officials pressed to be allowed to visit the Irrawaddy delta area, where as many as 128,000 people are estimated to have died, and two million have been seriously affected. In the absence of foreign aid workers, almost all of whom were forced to leave this week when the junta sealed off the disaster zone to foreigners, there were alarming rumours but little reliable information.

The acting country head at the UN, Christopher Kaye, denied reports that international aid was being misappropriated before it reached cyclone survivors. “We've had no evidence of this and these reports are not helpful,” he told The Times after claims that high-energy biscuits flown in by the World Food Programme were being sold privately in Rangoon. “The most important thing is to maintain a positive relationship with the Government in a very difficult situation to maintain the flow of aid.”

Meteorologists were monitoring an incoming storm that could bring heavy rain, but has the potential to develop into a second cyclone over the next few days. Because of the disaster the referendum was not held in these areas but is due to go ahead on May 24.

Thanks to yesterday's overwhelming result, the returns will make no difference to the overall outcome. “This referendum was full of cheating and fraud across the country,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy, said.

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