"Voting" ends in Myanmar election
Polling stations close in country's first elections in 20 years with odds heavily stacked against opposition parties. The junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has not said when the results will be announced, saying only that they could come "in time". It was almost certain, however, that through pre-election engineering the USDP will emerge victorious despite widespread popular opposition to 48 years of military rule. Sunday's election was held amid tight security, but few expect it to bring any real change in power, with the military and its proxies likely to dominate parliament and senior positions.
In the commercial hub of Yangon on Sunday, armed riot police stood guard at near-empty polling booths or patrolled streets in convoys of military trucks, part of a clampdown that includes bans on foreign media and on outside election monitors. The carefully choreographed end of direct army rule, marred by complex rules that stifled major pro-democracy forces, enters its final stage in a race largely between two powerful military-backed parties running virtually unopposed.
Al Jazeera: Myanmar Elections 2010