Supporters of Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi burst into boisterous celebration yesterday after the country held its first free nationwide election in 25 years, the biggest step yet in a journey to democracy from dictatorship.

Although the outcome of the poll will not be clear until later today or early tomorrow, a densely packed crowd blocked a busy road beside the headquarters of Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in Yangon as they cheered and waved red flags.

The NLD is expected to win the largest share of votes cast by an electorate of about 30 million, who chose from thousands of candidates standing for parliament and regional assemblies.

But a legacy of rule by military junta means Ms Suu Kyi, who led the campaign for democracy, cannot become president herself. And whatever the result, Myanmar is heading into a period of uncertainty over how she and other ascendant parties negotiate sharing power with the still-dominant military.

A pariah state until a few years ago, Myanmar has had little experience organising elections. Some 10,000 observers were enlisted to scrutinise the process. Early indications from the monitors were that voting was mostly trouble-free, with only isolated irregularities.

Military chief says will accept outcome of the poll

In Mandalay, about 100 people were stopped from voting after officials discovered they were outsiders who had been mysteriously added to the register and then bussed to the polling station. The main concern about the election’s fairness arose before the election.

Activists estimated that up to four million people, mostly citizens working abroad, would not be able to vote.

Supporters of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi celebrate as partial results are shown on a television the outside National League for Democracy (NLD) party headquarters in Yangon yesterday.

Religious tension, fanned by Buddhist nationalists whose actions have intimidated Myanmar’s Muslim minority, also marred the election campaign.

Still, there was excitement among voters about the first general election since a quasi-civilian government replaced military rule in 2011, which was widely seen as a referendum on the country’s unsteady reform process. Many voters doubted the military would accept the outcome of the vote if the NLD wins.

But in the capital, Naypyitaw, military Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing said there would be no repeat of the last free vote in 1990, when Ms Suu Kyi won but the army ignored the result. She spent most of the next 20 years under house arrest before her release in 2010.

“If the people choose them [ NLD], there is no reason we would not accept it,” the senior general said.

Results from the election are expected to come in slowly, with a clear overall picture not likely to emerge until tomorrow morning.