The United States gave a cautious welcome to Myanmar’s historic election on Monday but warned that there is still much work ahead to build a true democracy.

Assistant US Secretary of State Daniel Russel told reporters he was still awaiting reports from local and global watchdogs and the Myanmar electoral commission.

But he said initial signs from polling day itself suggested that in most areas people were able to take part without facing large-scale official intimidation.

“Nobody is for a moment suggesting that this was an election without shortcomings,” he said. “But at the same time we are hearing some heartening reports.”

Earlier, Secretary of State John Kerry had praised “courage and sacrifice shown by the people of Burma” while warning that the polls were “far from perfect.”

Russel said that, after Myanmar’s people had turned out in large numbers, “the military and the leaders of Burma are going to have to listen.

“Now, we all know that one election after 50 plus years of military dictatorship is not going to restore democracy, but clearly this was a hell of a step forward for the democratic process in Burma,” he said.

“I think that the key thing now is to get through the next several weeks, which will be complicated and delicate and an important time,” he warned.

Washington has long-standing concerns about Myanmar’s constitution, which reserves a quarter of parliamentary seats for supporters of the military dictatorship.

And during the build-up to Sunday’s landmark vote it cited concerns about the disenfranchisement of religious and ethnic minorities such as the Muslim Rohingya.

But, outside of active conflict areas, Russel said there were encouraging signs that voting had gone well.

“I don’t know if we can describe it yet as a widespread pattern,” he said.

“But there are conspicuous reports of cases in which the police or other officials interfered with or appeared to be blocking access but stepped back and allowed the process to take place where they were challenged by Burmese NGOs themselves,” he added.

“Over time a picture is going to emerge of the conduct of the voting,” he said. “It will vary, I predict, according to different areas, but the fear of large scale voter suppression, intimidation, is not borne out by the known facts as of now.”