Myanmar's biggest military-backed party won the country's first election in 20 years by a landslide on Tuesday after a carefully choreographed vote denounced by pro-democracy parties as rigged to preserve authoritarian rule.
Opposition parties conceded defeat but accused the military junta of fraud and said many state workers had been forced to support the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in advance balloting ahead of Sunday's vote.
A day after U.S. President Barack Obama dismissed it as stolen, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs lauded the election as "peaceful and successful," illustrating strengthening ties between energy-hungry China and its resource-rich neighbor.
As the votes were counted, government soldiers cleared ethnic minority rebels from an eastern border town after two days of sporadic clashes that killed at least 10 people and sent about 20,000 civilians fleeing into neighboring Thailand.
By afternoon, many refugees had returned to Myanmar as the military pushed back the ethnic minority Karen rebels who have passed their war against the government down the generations since what was then Burma won independence in 1948 from Britain.
The clashes underlined Myanmar's vulnerability to unrest following the country's first election in two decades on Sunday, which was billed by the ruling junta as a key stage in its self-proclaimed road to democracy.
Its political opponents and Western nations have decried the vote as unfair and repressive.
Thai authorities said Tuesday that Myanmar officials assured them the situation had stabilized in Myawaddy, a border town that came under attack by ethnic Karen guerrillas Sunday. The refugees who fled to Mae Sot, in Thailand's Tak province, were all expected to be sent home by late Tuesday, said provincial governor Samard Loyfar.
'Heavy shooting' However, fighting continued at Three Pagoda Pass, another Myanmar border town 100 miles south of Myawaddy, said Thai officials.
"The heavy shooting in Myanmar stopped a few hours ago but sporadic gunshots still can be heard," said Chamras Kungnoi, a district chief on the Thai side.
About 3,000 refugees were still in Thailand. "We want them to return at some point, but if the fighting continues, they might have to stay here another night," Chamras said.
A 9-year-old girl from Myanmar died of shrapnel wounds, Chamras said. Five people were wounded by stray gunfire in Mae Sot on Monday, and another five were hurt in Myawaddy.
The fighters say the election and the military's continued dominance threaten any chance of achieving a degree of autonomy.
Stacked with recently retired generals and closely aligned with 77-year-old paramount leader Senior General Than Shwe, the USDP took as many as 80 percent of the available seats for parliament, a senior USDP official told Reuters.
But Khin Maung Swe, leader of the National Democratic Force, the largest opposition party, told Reuters: "We took the lead at the beginning but the USDP later came up with so-called advance votes and that changed the results completely, so we lost."
The second-largest pro-democracy party, the Democratic Party (Myanmar), also conceded defeat.
"I admit defeat but it was not fair play. It was full of malpractice and fraud and we will try to expose them and tell the people," said Democratic Party leader Thu Wai.
At least six parties have lodged complaints with the election commission, accusing the USDP of fraud — a charge that is unlikely to gain traction in a country where more than 2,100 political activists are behind bars.
Obama said Monday it was unacceptable for Myanmar's government to "steal an election" and hold the people's aspirations hostage to the regime's greed and paranoia. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said the voting was not inclusive enough and lacked transparency.
The West and the U.N. have long been critical of Myanmar's military regime, especially for its poor human rights record.
The vote was held with Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in detention and her party disbanded for refusing to take part in an election it said was unfair. She had urged supporters to boycott the poll.
With the election over, the spotlight will return to Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention but is due to be freed when her latest house arrest term expires on Saturday.
The United States, Britain, the European Union and Japan repeated calls this week to free the 65-year-old pro-democracy leader whose National League for Democracy beat an army-backed party by a landslide in 1990, a result ignored by the junta.
Myanmar's neighbors and partners in ASEAN have been hoping the election would end Myanmar's isolation and remove hurdles it poses to greater cooperation with the West.
China has built up close political and business links with Myanmar while the West has for years shunned its leaders and imposed sanctions over the suppression of democracy and a poor human rights record.
"This is a critical step for Myanmar in implementing the seven step roadmap to transitioning to an elected government and thus is welcome and affirmed," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Tuesday. Beijing is the junta's staunchest ally.
Russia also welcomed the vote.
"We see the elections as a step in the democratization of Myanmar society in accordance with the political reforms taken by the country's leadership," Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.