Myanmar goes to polls today

Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar’s opposition National League for Democracy, at a polling station in Kawhmu.

Security was tight around the country, with 40,000 specially trained police watching over polling stations, and many restaurants and markets closed in the country’s usually bustling main city, Yangon. “But today I have lost hope of any change in my lifetime”.

The last contested national election was in 1990 when the National League won a landslide victory, but the military immediately nullified the results.

The initial count appeared to show the NLD were fairing well across the country. The president described the election as “the most meaningful and important in Myanmar history”.

Millions voted, with early returns indicating a solid victory by the opposition leader and democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi. Burma’ss constitution guarantees 25 per cent of seats in parliament to the military, and was rewritten to keep Ms Suu Kyi, the country’s most popular politician, from the presidency.

Suu Kyi can not run for president or vice president because of a constitutional amendment that bars anyone with a foreign spouse or child from holding the top jobs. It is not under the government’s control and could continue attacks against ethnic groups.

Although it was too early to call the result, loyalists wearing the party color of red or waving its peacock emblem flags sang and danced to blaring NLD pop tracks composed for the vote.

“My feeling now is one of relief and “so far, so good”, she said as she emerged later with a finger inked in the indelible purple dye that marked a voter. “[Only] disputes over voter list errors and complaints over people losing the right to cast votes”, he said.

She made the comments during a news conference in Yangon on Thursday, and added that there have been irregularities in advance voting, fraud and intimidation – and that the process was falling short of its billing as Myanmar’s first free and fair election in 25 years.

From behind barricades, Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims expressed anger, sadness and hopelessness at being blocked from the country’s historic election.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi leaves after voting at a polling station at Kaw Hmu township during the general election Sunday, Nov 8, 2015, in Yangon, Myanmar.

“But there can still be a result that credibly reflects the overall desires of a majority of the Burmese people”, Malinowski said.

Winning the election would only be the first step toward full power for the National League for Democracy. Since then, and amid intense global pressure, Burma’s generals have slowly opened up the country for democracy and reform.

A few 30 million voters are eligible to cast ballots over the next 10 1/2 hours. Voters were reportedly upbeat about the country’s transition from a military dictatorship to a quasi-civilian government.

Outside Rangoon, the busy streets give way to flat farmland, dotted with simple huts with woven bamboo walls, mango groves and palm trees. Still those in that voted Sunday stated they felt a thrill figuring out in that their country might be guided by the desire of the people after so many years of time of time of military domination.

Nevertheless, on Sunday there were lines to get into the polling station in a school compound – men in one building, women in the other. Banners on the wall demonstrated voting procedures in graphics for those who had never voted before.

He told them: “We won’t be able to announce the result yet”.

She quickly cast her vote and left without speaking to reporters. “So I have come to vote”.

Results from the election, which ended at 4 p.m. (0930 GMT) are expected to come in slowly.

At each stop, she was met by throngs of supporters and camera crews – but through it all, Aung San Suu Kyi’s expression was serious.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Puerto Rico’s government likely will have to cut back on public services or default on debts before the end of the year because it is running out of cash, the Government Development Bank said in a financial filing.