Myanmar junta retains power as its chief wins the presidency

[YANGON] Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing who led a coup in 2021 was elected president by lawmakers on Friday (Apr 3), maintaining the military’s grip on power in the war-ravaged South-east Asian country. 

The 69-year-old former military leader won 429 out of 584 votes cast at the Union Parliament dominated by the junta’s proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party. He beat two other presidential candidates – Nan Ni Ni Aye, from the Upper House, and ex-general Nyo Saw, nominated by the military, according to a live broadcast. 

He becomes the 11th President of Myanmar since the country gained independence from the British in 1948.

Elected lawmakers and military-appointed legislators cast ballots in the presidential election that favoured the Lower House’s nominee, Min Aung Hlaing. The vote followed the widely-criticised phased election held only in junta-controlled townships.

Min Aung Hlaing, who stepped down as the military’s senior general on Monday, had repeatedly expressed a willingness to transfer power to an opposition party. The election process, though, has been denounced by the United Nations and Western democracies as a “sham.”

After Min Aung Hlaing’s resignation as chief commander, he installed Ye Win Oo, a loyalist and ex-spymaster, as his successor. The nation’s military-drafted 2008 Constitution prohibits the senior general from also occupying the presidency. 

Myanmar has two vice presidents assigned different responsibilities but with equal power, though one is designated to act as interim president if needed. 

Nan Ni Ni Aye, a 57-year-old ethnic Karen who chairs the junta’s party in Kayin State, became Myanmar’s first female vice president after garnering 29 votes. Prime Minister Nyo Saw won 126 votes to become the nation’s other vice president. 

Min Aung Hlaing and his aide Nyo Saw were sanctioned by the European Union and other nations after toppling Aung San Suu Kyi’s government five years ago. The regime has been struggling with a crippling economy and ongoing civil war since the coup. BLOOMBERG