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.

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.