(REPORT): Early Reports from Myanmar Election: Low Turn-Out Amid Heavy Security Presence (UPDATED 20:43 GMT)

(HN, November 7, 2010) - Amid a heavy police presence and voter intimidation, the people of Myanmar voted in Parliamentary elections - the first in 20 years. However opposition candidates had an extremely difficult time making themselves known to the voters in this impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

Observers and diplomats said the military junta that has controlled Myanmar (also known as Burma) for almost two decades is hoping what many are categorizing as a sham election - no independent observers or journalists were allowed - will be seen as a legitimate exercise, especially by allies such as China. A stringer quoted by one of the western news agencies said some polling places were mostly empty.A mother holds her child amid the devastation of Cyclone Nargis. The military junta was accused of witholding foreign aid. CREDIT: UN

Today, during a state visit to India, US President Barack Obama described the elections as "anything but free and fair" and that its people have "been denied the right to determine their own destiny."

Ordinary people quoted by freelance journalists inside Myanmar said most voters interviewed will stay away from polling stations as a sign or protest. However, as in previous elections, local officials intimidate people to go vote.

During the short campaign period, while official candidates were ferried around streets in late-model Toyota trucks and with loud speakers and flashy posters, opposition candidates had to walk door-to-door with photocopied pamphlets, observers said.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also dismissed the election: "Many aspects of these elections are not compatible with internationally accepted standards, notably in the bias against most opposition parties -- such as the NLD -- and their candidates."

As it usually does, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) - of which Myanmar is a member - remained mostly silent on the election: there was no call for a free and fair process at its summit last month in Vietnam. Recently, the Philippines Foreign Secretary, Alberto Romulo, has stated that the election is a farce and is flawed, and would cost ASEAN not only goodwill but its legitimacy.

The country is still reeling from the effects of Cyclone Nargis three years ago, when severe rains and winds damaged large swaths of the country, killed tens of thousands and made many homeless. At the time, the military junta was accused of ignoring effected areas seen as not supportive of the government. And foreign government accused Myanmar officials of refusing badly-needed aid.

In the last Parliamentary election in 1990 - when the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) won a majority of seats - the junta nullified the results. NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, has been under house arrest for most of the past 20 years and is unable to speak to the pubic. The party decided to boycott this election, citing intimidation and manipulation of the process.

If any opposition candidate do get elected, observers say one of the most important interventions they could provide is scrutinizing the national budget, which is a state secret. While the junta spends up to 60 per cent on defence, spending on social services and education are abysmally low.

In an analysis piece in Asia Times Online, Burma watcher Danielle Burnstein writes that decades of mismanagement in Myanmar have driven nearly a third of the country's population below the poverty line, and that the country's children - many of whom are forced to work and serve in the army - stand to suffer the most from the status quo.

"As the nation braces for its first national election in more than 20 years...it is Myanmar's most vulnerable citizens - its children - who stand to lose if the country's new leaders fail to reverse the trend towards further fiscal collapse, squandered," writes Burnstein.

- HUMNEWS staff