Voting proceeds smoothly in Myanmar's first free election for 25 years

YANGON – Voting unfolded smoothly in Myanmar on Sunday with no reports of violence to puncture a mood of jubilation marking the Southeast Asian nation’s first free nationwide election in 25 years, its biggest stride yet in a journey from dictatorship to democracy.

The party of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to win the largest share of votes cast by an electorate of about 30 million, who will chose from among thousands of candidates standing for parliament and regional assemblies.

But a legacy of military rule means she cannot become president after the election, even if her National League for Democracy (NLD) wins a landslide.

Concern arose about the fairness of the election after activists estimated that up to 4 million people may be unable to cast a ballot.

And on the eve of the poll, the NLD said a suspiciously large number of extra voting tickets had been issued in some areas, with one family in Yangon getting 38.

Religious tension, fanned by Buddhist nationalists whose actions have intimidated Myanmar’s Muslim minority, marred the election campaign.

Among those excluded from voting were around a million Rohingya Muslims who are effectively stateless in their own land.

Still, there was excitement among voters about the first general election since a quasi-civilian government replaced military rule in 2011, which is widely regarded as a referendum on the country’s unsteady reform process.

“I’ve done my bit for change, for the emergence of democracy,” said 55-year-old former teacher Daw Myint after casting her vote for the NLD in Yangon.

Suu Kyi’s car inched through a scrum of news photographers outside the Yangon polling station where the 70-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate came to vote. She was stone-faced as bodyguards shouted at people to move aside.

Most of the well-wishers gathered there were lucky to get more than a glimpse of the garland in her hair. A cry of “Victory! Victory!” went up from the crowd as she went inside.

Many voters voiced doubts the military will accept the outcome of the vote if Suu Kyi’s party is victorious.

But in the capital, Naypyi-taw, military Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing said Sunday there will be no re-run of the last free vote in 1990, when Suu Kyi won but the army ignored the result. She spent most of the next 20 years under house arrest before her release in 2010.

Asked how he will feel if the NLD wins this time, Min Aung Hlaing told reporters, “If the people choose them, there is no reason we would not accept it.”

Results from the election, which ended at 4 p.m. local time, are expected to come in slowly.

Officials say a clear overall picture is not expected to emerge until Tuesday morning.

Suu Kyi is barred from taking the presidency herself under a constitution written by the junta to preserve its power.

But if she wins a majority and is able to form Myanmar’s first democratically elected government since the early 1960s, Suu Kyi says she will be the power behind the new president regardless of a constitution she has derided as “very silly.”

Suu Kyi starts the contest with a sizable handicap: even if the vote is deemed free and fair, one-quarter of parliament’s seats will 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 ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) will need far fewer seats if it secures 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 some of the 91 parties contesting the election, including many representing Myanmar’s myriad ethnic minorities, into a king-maker role.

Even if the NLD is victorious, the military will retain significant power.

It is guaranteed key ministerial positions, the constitution gives it the right to take over the government under certain circumstances, and it also has a grip on the economy through holding companies.

Until just a few years ago a pariah state, Myanmar has had little experience organizing elections and so 10,000 observers were enlisted to scrutinize the process.

Security was tight, 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 of Yangon.

Wa Gyi, owner of a roadside food stall, said he had been ordered to close for the day. “It’s OK for us,” he said. “It’s our contribution to the emergence of democracy.”