New Delhi, Dec. 28 -- Voters in military-controlled areas of Myanmar went to the polls on Sunday in a phased election that is widely seen as a "sham" and expected to favour the junta-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party.

UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews on Sunday said that a vote organised by a junta that continues to bomb civilians, imprison political leaders, and criminalise dissent could not be considered a genuine election, describing it as "a theatre of the absurd performed at gunpoint", according to BBC. He urged the international community to reject the election, saying that "nothing legitimate" could emerge from it.

Campaigners, Western diplomats and the United Nations' human rights chief have all slammed the phased, ...