The voting is over - and the counting has begun.

Elections officials in Myanmar sort through hundreds of ballots Sunday after polls closed in a historic parliamentary by-election.

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in parliament - after spending much of the last two decades in confinement for opposing the country's ruling generals.

By-elections were held to fill 45 vacant parliamentary seats.

They are part of a sudden flowering of democracy in Myanmar, which for decades had been under the firm grasp of a military junta.

It's not clear when all votes will be counted and the official result announced.

Andrew Raven, Reuters