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ELEANOR HALL: Overnight the political parties backed by Burma's military regime formally claimed victory in the country's first election in 20 years.
The election was condemned as a sham by most of the international community even before the votes were cast.
But it did provoke fighting between ethnic rebels and government forces and an exodus of about 20,000 people to neighbouring Thailand.
Thai authorities have now forced most of those people back across the border into Burma. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel is in the border region and joins us there now.
Zoe, why did the Thais moved so quickly to push these Burmese people back?
ZOE DANIEL: Look I think Thailand's preparing for a long period of to-ing and fro-ing from people out of Burma. I think there's a real expectation that this border conflict could escalate and could last for a long period of time.
There've been various predictions of escalating conflict between ethnic groups in the Burmese military after the election and that's what we've been seeing in the last couple of days and I think that Thailand's view is that when it's safe for people to go back they should go back. But there is an expectation that they may return to Thailand if there's a further upsurge in fighting.
So I think what we could see if a revolving door of refugees crossing back and forth over the border as these skirmishes take place.
Also Thailand's got lots of problems of its own politically at the moment but in a more immediate sense it's just had the worst flooding in 50 years and it has its own displaced people to deal with, which is obviously a costly and logistical matter for Thailand to deal with. So they just can't cope with any more.
ELEANOR HALL: Were the Burmese people as convinced as the Thais that it was safe to go back across the border?
ZOE DANIEL: No they weren't. Many of those people in the refugee camp here at Mae Sot had only been there for say 12 hours, they'd crossed over the border overnight and then in the afternoon yesterday they were told, okay it's safe to go back now.
Many of people had literally fled under fire, with shelling going on around them and that they just picked up whatever was near them and run away. Some had even left their children, who were in different locations back in Myawaddy, so they'd literally just fled a conflict that had erupted around them.
There was a lot of fear in the refugee camp when announcement were made that is was time to go back and certainly a great deal of uncertainty about whether fighting is over and a general expectation that it isn't.
ELEANOR HALL: Now the political parties backed by the military in Burma have claimed a massive victory in this election, but the key opposition parties were calling for a boycott of the ballot. Is there any indication at this stage that the voters did stay away?
ZOE DANIEL: In some areas the vote was apparently as low as 40 per cent. That's difficult to confirm because foreign observers and foreign journalists were largely banned from monitoring the election. In other areas, voting was around 60 per cent.
There's been lots of discussion that ballot boxes were stuffed, that votes were rigged, and that there was intimidation of people to force them to vote for the ruling junta's party.
So it's difficult to know whether Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy's call for boycott had an impact.
Some of the other opposition parties who did run in the election, the Democratic Party for example, and the National Democratic Force, which is an offshoot of Aung San Suu Kyi's party, were actually calling for people to vote because their view was that this was perhaps the only opportunity to achieve some measure of democracy.
The election was condemned as a sham by most of the international community even before the votes were cast.
But it did provoke fighting between ethnic rebels and government forces and an exodus of about 20,000 people to neighbouring Thailand.
Thai authorities have now forced most of those people back across the border into Burma. Our Southeast Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel is in the border region and joins us there now.
Zoe, why did the Thais moved so quickly to push these Burmese people back?
ZOE DANIEL: Look I think Thailand's preparing for a long period of to-ing and fro-ing from people out of Burma. I think there's a real expectation that this border conflict could escalate and could last for a long period of time.
There've been various predictions of escalating conflict between ethnic groups in the Burmese military after the election and that's what we've been seeing in the last couple of days and I think that Thailand's view is that when it's safe for people to go back they should go back. But there is an expectation that they may return to Thailand if there's a further upsurge in fighting.
So I think what we could see if a revolving door of refugees crossing back and forth over the border as these skirmishes take place.
Also Thailand's got lots of problems of its own politically at the moment but in a more immediate sense it's just had the worst flooding in 50 years and it has its own displaced people to deal with, which is obviously a costly and logistical matter for Thailand to deal with. So they just can't cope with any more.
ELEANOR HALL: Were the Burmese people as convinced as the Thais that it was safe to go back across the border?
ZOE DANIEL: No they weren't. Many of those people in the refugee camp here at Mae Sot had only been there for say 12 hours, they'd crossed over the border overnight and then in the afternoon yesterday they were told, okay it's safe to go back now.
Many of people had literally fled under fire, with shelling going on around them and that they just picked up whatever was near them and run away. Some had even left their children, who were in different locations back in Myawaddy, so they'd literally just fled a conflict that had erupted around them.
There was a lot of fear in the refugee camp when announcement were made that is was time to go back and certainly a great deal of uncertainty about whether fighting is over and a general expectation that it isn't.
ELEANOR HALL: Now the political parties backed by the military in Burma have claimed a massive victory in this election, but the key opposition parties were calling for a boycott of the ballot. Is there any indication at this stage that the voters did stay away?
ZOE DANIEL: In some areas the vote was apparently as low as 40 per cent. That's difficult to confirm because foreign observers and foreign journalists were largely banned from monitoring the election. In other areas, voting was around 60 per cent.
There's been lots of discussion that ballot boxes were stuffed, that votes were rigged, and that there was intimidation of people to force them to vote for the ruling junta's party.
So it's difficult to know whether Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy's call for boycott had an impact.
Some of the other opposition parties who did run in the election, the Democratic Party for example, and the National Democratic Force, which is an offshoot of Aung San Suu Kyi's party, were actually calling for people to vote because their view was that this was perhaps the only opportunity to achieve some measure of democracy.