When cyclone Giri slammed into Burma’s western coast on 22 October, fears of another Nargis swept Burma. Although the damage has been significantly less, swathes of countryside and buildings have been destroyed. In Arakan state’s Kyaukphyu town, it is estimated that 70 percent of the houses were flattened, while heavy winds and rain laid waste to roads and communication systems.  But a request from one party competing in the 7 November elections to delay voting by a month has been ignored by the junta, who infamously rushed through the referendum for the 2008 constitution as the country still reeled from its worst natural disaster in recorded history.