Burma poll closes amid criticism and indifference

The election was not mentioned on state TV news until four hours after the polls had closed. Blogging for Channel 4 News, Jon Sparks writes: “The polling station selected by the government officials for filming looked positively deserted.”

The Union Solidary and Development Party (USDP), which is closely aligned with ruling dictator Tan Shwe and his military junta, contested all of the estimated 1,158 seats.

Its only real rival, the National United Party (NUP), ran in 980 seats. The NUP is also backed by the Burmese army.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague described the elections in Burma as “flawed” and dismissed the result as “a foregone conclusion”. He said the vote would mean “the return to power of a brutal regime that has pillaged the nation’s resources and overseen widespread human rights abuses”.

Burma's election: to stand or not to stand
The junta's careful electoral planning has put the opposition in a bind, blogs Channel 4 News Asia correspondent John Sparks. Do the regime's critics participate in a flawed election or turn their back on it entirely?

Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD decided on the latter. In fact we have seen secret footage of campaigners actively trying to convince the public not to turn up to vote.

Not everyone agrees however. Some have broken with "the Lady", as Ms Suu Kyi is reverently known, and scraped together enough money to run. Their argument goes something like this: opposition parties will gain a legal footing in parliament and in other institutions, and the generals may begin to loosen their grip on power if they don't feel threatened by these new "democratic" institutions.

Read more of John Sparks's blog

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma’s main opposition party, last week urged a boycott of the election. Ms Suu Kyi is currently under house arrest, though the terms of her detention expire on 13 November.

When Burma last went to the polls, in 1990, Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won 80 per cent of the vote. Aung San Suu Kyi was subsequently arrested and has been detained by the authorities in her country for 15 of the past 21 years.

Some analysts say that although this weekend’s vote will not end western sanctions, it may reduce Burma’s isolation. They argue that the existence of two parties in parliament, pursuing different social and economic policies, could foster greater democratic debate in the country.