In Myanmar, a festival of democracy tinged with doubt

Factory manager Shein Win and his wife, Khin Myat Maw, arrived holding hands to cast their votes in Yangon in Myanmar's first free election in a quarter-century. Both now 46, they took part in a 1988 democracy protest that brought Aung San Suu Kyi to prominence.

"We've been waiting for this day for a long time," said Khin Myat Maw as they stood in line. There were cheers from crowds of well-wishers, who held up ink-stained fingers to show they had voted, as Suu Kyi made a whistle-stop tour of polling booths in Myanmar's commercial capital.

Emotions ran high among the roughly 30 million people who went to the polls on Sunday, with awe at the milestone their country had reached and a quiet sense of duty to be part of it. One man who works as an accountant in Singapore said he had flown home just to vote and would head back the next day.

In a downtown neighbourhood of Myanmar's city of Mandalay, Myint Myint, 95, was perched on a plastic chair carried by three men along a dirt path and past a snaking line of voters to the local polling station. "A vote is a vote," her granddaughter, Phyo Kyaw explained. "Come on, this is our responsibility."

FEAR AND ANGER

But there were doubts and anxieties, too, as many voters recalled the election of 1990, when a landslide victory for Suu Kyi's NLD was brushed aside by military rulers. Khin May Oo, a 73-year-old doctor who voted in Yangon, said the election may have brought Myanmar to a turning point, but added nervously of the generals who retain significant power: "I'm not sure whether they will accept the election results."

The military's commander-in-chief told reporters on Sunday the outcome of the vote would be respected, even if - as is widely expected - Suu Kyi's NLD emerges as the winner. Indeed, at a military base in the capital, Naypyitaw, Captain Wai Yan Aung said when his duty shift ended he would change from his uniform into traditional dress and cast his vote. "It's a big and exciting day for our country," he said.

A damper to the celebration was the cancellation of voting in areas of the country affected by ethnic violence, which activists estimate has cut some 4 million people out of the electoral process. There was also indignation about voter lists riddled with errors.

Linn Htet Aung, 25, who works for an environment NGO in Yangon, said he was excited about the potential for change in the country but disappointed because his name was omitted from the voter list in a slum area on the outskirts of the city.

"I am angry," he said. "All my friends are voting today but I can't. I want to choose the government I like but I can't." Aung Than Htun, an NLD official monitoring a polling station in the slum, said he had discovered dead people on the voting list. But other than that "it seems fine", he said.

Behind him, small white voting slips sat in piles on a table, with rocks and pebbles serving as paperweights. A sudden gust of wind blew a handful off the table and election officials had to scurry to collect them.