Voting has ended in Myanmar’s general election, the country’s first openly contested national election in 25 years after decades of military rule.
Although, she is barred from the presidency, opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) is expected to win the most seats in parliament.
Long queues formed at some polling booths across the country, with reports of people queuing from long before dawn.
About 30 million people are eligible to vote in the election in Myanmar, but clear results are not expected until Monday morning.
More than 6,000 candidates from over 90 parties are vying to be elected to the 664-seat parliament.
But if Suu kyi wins a majority and is able to form Myanmar’s first democratically elected government since the early 1960s, she said that she would be the power behind the new president, regardless of a constitution she had derided as ‘very silly’.
Suu Kyi started the contest with a sizeable handicap; even if the vote is deemed free and fair, one-quarter of parliament’s seats would still be held by unelected military officers.
To form a government and choose its own president, the NLD on its own or with allies, must win more than two-thirds of all seats up for grabs. By contrast, the USDP would need far fewer seats if it secured the backing of the military bloc in parliament.
However, many voters are expected to spurn the USDP, created by the former junta and led by former military officers, because it is associated with the brutal dictatorship that installed President Thein Sein’s nominally civilian government in 2011.
An inconclusive result could thrust parties representing Myanmar’s myriad ethnic minorities into a king-maker role, bringing them closer to the centre of power after years on the fringes.
In a pre-election speech on Friday, President Sein stressed the government’s commitment to ensuring a credible vote, with more than 10,000 observers scrutinising the process, in which 91 parties are taking part.
Security is tight around the country, with 40,000 specially trained police watching over polling stations, and many restaurants and markets were closed in the country’s usually bustling main city, Yangon.
