PREFACE: "This is an invaluable document. It provides the only independent view of the 2010 elections, based on the observations of people who were on the ground in many different parts of the country. It also presents a comprehensive analysis of the legal and administrative framework, and a detailed and thoughtful set of recommendations. Given the constraints the team was working under, this is a remarkable achievement. It enables the report to make two important contributions: highlighting the many flaws in the process, while at the same time demonstrating the efforts of parties, candidates, voters and the observers themselves, who sought to overcome the various constraints imposed on them. Free and fair these elections were not, but dismissing them out of hand, as many in the international community have tended to do, is not helpful ? it does a disservice to those opposition parties who made the difficult decision to contest, and to those few of their candidates who managed to win against the odds. These parties and candidates are committed to using the small space they have carved out to push a reform agenda, and those who stand on the side of democracy should give them their encouragement. But more than this, the report provides a reference point, and indeed a model, for future election observation. This is critical if many of the issues identified by the observers are to be addressed. Thus, the biggest contribution of this report will hopefully not be in documenting the past, but in influencing the future. In this regard, if future elections are to have credibility in the eyes of the Myanmar people and the world, it is essential that the Myanmar government allow such observation activities to be freely conducted. For me, two important qualities of this report make it stand out: its rigorous analysis, and its careful balance and objectivity ? characteristics that are unfortunately often lacking in reporting on Myanmar." Richard Horsey