Unease and expectation as Myanmar prepares to vote

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party is tipped to emerge as the largest party in parliament.

Yangon: Final preparations were underway today for Myanmar's first meaningful election in a generation, the day before the historic poll that could see Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition launched to power after decades of army rule.

Her National League for Democracy party is tipped to emerge as the largest party in parliament, a result that would upend Myanmar's political landscape, which has been dominated by the military since independence.

President Thein Sein, a former general who has led reforms since the sudden end of outright junta rule in 2011, insists his government -- and the powerful army -- will respect the outcome of the vote.

Authorities have computerised the electoral roll for the first time in an effort to ensure a free and fair vote across a vast, poor country.

Thein Sein has also urged the public to cast their ballots in an election trailed as the centrepiece of reforms.

But tens of thousands of ethnic Rohingya Muslims in western Rakhine state have been disenfranchised, while ethnic rebellions mean the vote will not be held in some areas.

Observers fear many voters -- especially in constituencies home to large numbers internal migrant workers -- may have been missed from the voter list.

The public is also instinctively cautious in a nation where the army has repeatedly reacted to political challenges with violence.

"I don't like this government, they are corrupt... I believe there will be some (vote) fraud, but I think Suu Kyi won't be like them," said Win Mar Oo, who runs a grocery.

Like many in the country the 36-year-old is a first time voter. She stayed away from 2010 polls boycotted by the NLD and seen as sham by the international community and was too young to vote in the last elections contested by Suu Kyi in 1990.

Then the NLD won a landslide, but the army annulled the result and tightened their hold on power.

"I hope the president will keep his promise," said security guard Aung Htay, 54, referring to a speech by Thein Sein late yesterday in which he vowed "the government and Tatmadaw (army) will respect" the vote.

But the president added the new government must be "in conformity with the constitution" -- a possible coded warning to Suu Kyi, who on Thursday declared an NLD win would see her take on a role "above the president."

Suu Kyi is barred from the nation's top office by a clause in the charter, which states that anyone with foreign children or spouse can not become Myanmar's president. Her sons and late husband are British.