Clashes between rebels and Burmese government troops raged in a key border town today, a day after the country’s first election in two decades – polling which critics say will the cement the military-run government’s power.

Burma’s secretive military-ruled government gave no sign today of when results from the country’s first election in two decades would be released, though it is almost certain power will remain in the hands of the junta and its political proxies.

BURMA voted yesterday in its first election in 20 years as complaints of intimidation added to fears the poll was a sham to create a facade of democracy after decades of iron-fisted military rule.

Voters in the secretive military-ruled nation of Burma cast their first ballots in 20 years today, as slim hopes for democratic reform faced an electoral system engineered to ensure that most power will remain in the hands of the junta and its political proxies.

People in Burma are voting in the country’s first election in 20 years, although the military regime has cancelled polling in many districts.