YANGON, Myanmar — Voting began today in Myanmar’s first election in 20 years amid both a barrage of criticism that the balloting was rigged in favor of the ruling military and hope that some change toward democratic reform might follow.
About 40,000 polling stations across the Southeast Asian country opened about 6 a.m. local time and were to close 10 hours later. About the results, the regime said only that they could come “in time.”
However, it was almost certain that through pre-election engineering, the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party would emerge as the victor despite widespread popular opposition to 48 years of military rule.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the elections deeply flawed, saying they “once again expose the abuses of the military junta,” to an audience Saturday at the University of Melbourne in Australia. “It’s heartbreaking because the people of Burma deserve so much better.” Story and photo by The Associated Press
