This map shows Burma's administrative divisions in 2007. (Creative Commons)

President Obama said in a meeting in Mumbai, India that the election "will be anything but free and fair." "For too long the people of Burma have been denied the right to determine their own destiny," he added.

Burma, which is officially known as Myanmar, has long been ruled by a corrupt government marked by a depletion of the country's resources, disappearances, rape and torture.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party is expected to gain the majority of seats in the national parliament, because the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, was barred due to election rules.

Military officials have been accused by opposition parties of intimidating voters. A report by the website Burma Election Tracker accused military officials of forcing people to vote at gunpoint for USDP canditates.

CNN reports that nearly 10,000 people fled from Burma into neighboring Thailand after violence broke out between Burma's military and a rebel group of of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army.

Read more about what world leaders are saying, including Obama, here.

Read more about the violence between the rebel group and Burma's military here.