Despite the fact that the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is collecting advanced votes using controversial methods and is engaging in other forms of vote manipulation, ethnic political parties still believe their candidates have a chance to win in Sunday's election.

The candidate for the National Unity Party (NUP) in Hinthada Township in Irrawaddy Division complained on Saturday to the Election Commission of illegal practices in collecting advanced votes by his rival, Htay Oo, the general-secretary of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

RANGOON—Some of the bigger parties contesting Sunday's election in military-ruled Burma have raised fresh complaints of unfairness, including voters being threatened if they don't back the ruling junta's party.

Citing strong objections over the reported cases of advance voting abuses by officials ahead of Sunday's general election in Burma, two major ethnic political parties declared on Friday that they will most likely contest the elections results.

Reports coming out of Shan State in northeast Burma suggest the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the authorities are collecting advance pro-USDP votes through intimidation in many rural area across Shan State.
According to the Shan State election watch group, the authorities are forcing villagers to vote in advance in villages near Kyethi, Lashio, Mong Ya, and Tang Yan Townships.

Some 200 villagers from Kyarinseikyi Township in southern Karen State held a secret rally earlier this week to air their grievances about being denied the right to vote in Sunday's general election.

RANGOON — Twenty years after the last elections here, when a landslide opposition victory was annulled by the military-run government, Burma is holding a nationwide vote Sunday that its secretive generals tout as "discipline-flourishing democracy."

The lone candidate challenging Burma's Prime Minister Thein Sein, the chairman of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), for parliament in his Zabbu Thiri Township constituency in Naypyidaw was allegedly injured in a suspicious motorcycle incident on Oct. 29.

RANGOON—Burma's government-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is stepping up its campaigning on the eve of Nov. 7 election, adding to the billboards that already outnumber the posters of other political parties.

Despite the fact that many members of the international community, regional activists and Burmese dissidents have criticized Burma's Sunday election, its first in 20 years, China said on Thursday that it hopes the election goes well.