5 days 15 hours 37 min ago Myanmar referendum held amid cyclone relief efforts Play video

(NECN/ABC) - Families sit alone, no food, no water. But on state television, the government launches a promotional campaign for today's referendum.

The country's military rulers hold photo-ops with boxes of relief, and promote a vote that that will entrench their power, as their people die.

Villager: "the country, the areas which were struck by the cyclone, should get the foreign aid." Much of that country is still underwater... Bodies lie on the sides of rivers, left to rot.

There is some aid coming in, from the UN and from china. But largely relief still sits undistributed, aid workers still refused entry.

The aid that is being handed out is a fraction of what's needed.

Richard Horsey/United Nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs: "we are running out of time here. There is a huge risk that diarrhea disease; cholera and so on could start to spread, because there is a lack of clean drinking water, a lack of sanitation facilities. This could be a huge problem and it could lead to a second phase which could be as deadly as the cyclone."

The price of rice and water has shot up. A debilitating increase in a country where millions make less than $2 a day. Now the international community is debating whether to send in aid despite the objections of the Myanmar government. It can't come soon enough. The forecast next week... Is for more rain.