Burma's general election: Everything you need to know

This weekend, Burma will hold one of its most significant elections in recent history.

Burma is due to stage its most important general election for decades on Sunday.

More than 93 parties are competing, with 10,500 observers monitoring its fairness.

For Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi - who spent 15 years under house arrest but who has been an MP since 2012 - it could be the best chance she ever gets of leading her party, the National League for Democracy, to power.

Running against the NLD is the ruling Union Solidarity and Development party. Created by the military junta, it won the 2010 general election when Ms Suu Kyi was still in detention, but many accused it of rigging that poll, and even some of its senior members predict it is heading for defeat on Sunday.

But the influence of the military will remain because it is guaranteed 25 per cent of seats in Parliament, and controls three key ministries. Whoever wins the election will have to deal with that legacy.