NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar lawmakers will elect a new president on Friday, the parliamentary speaker said, with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing one of three candidates for the post. The former commander-in-chief has led Myanmar since 2021, when he ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and triggered a civil war. He was one of three vice presidents elected by lawmakers on Tuesday, receiving 247 of 260 votes in the lower house. &quot;...the three vice presidents (members of parliament) have to vote to ... elect the one vice president they prefer as the President,&quot; parliamentary speaker Aung Lin Dwe said Thursday, adding the vote will be held at 10:00 a.m on Friday. The other two vice presidents are Nan Ni Ni Aye, a regional MP from Karen state with the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and current Prime Minister Nyo Saw. Democracy watchdogs have long warned that the new government will be a proxy of the military, which has ruled Myanmar for the vast majority of its post-independence history. The generals loosened their grip for a decade-long democratic experiment beginning in 2011, allowing Aung San Suu Kyi to ascend as civilian leader and steer a period of reform as the nation opened up. But after Aung San Suu Kyi trounced the USDP in a landslide in the 2020 elections, Min Aung Hlaing seized power back. After five years of hardline rule, the top general oversaw heavily restricted elections that returned a walkover win for pro-military parties in January. Now the USDP, led and staffed by many retired officers, is entrenched in parliament after winning 80% of the elected seats, and the new government is expected to march in lockstep with the top brass. Min Aung Hlaing is expected to manage a carefully orchestrated transition to the presidency after handing over the reins of the military to loyalist Ye Win Oo on Monday.

Min Aung Hlaing - (Photo: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

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Min Aung Hlaing is set to become Myanmar’s president through a military-backed parliamentary vote following contested elections and years of junta rule after the ousting of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myanmar parliament to elect new president Friday: Speaker

ISLAMABAD: Voting began Sunday in Myanmar&#39;s heavily restricted polls, with the ruling junta touting the exercise as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering a civil war. Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, while her hugely popular party has been dissolved and was not taking part. Campaigners, Western diplomats and the UN&#39;s rights chief have all condemned the phased month-long vote, citing a ballot stacked with military allies and a stark crackdown on dissent. The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party is widely expected to emerge as the largest one, in what critics say would be a rebranding of martial rule. The Southeast Asian nation of around 50 million is riven by civil war and there will be no voting in rebel-held areas. In junta-controlled territory, the first of three rounds started at 6:00 am local time, including in constituencies in the cities of Yangon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyidaw. &quot;The election is very important and will bring the best for the country,&quot; said Bo Saw, the first voter at a polling station in Yangon&#39;s Kamayut Township near Suu Kyi&#39;s vacant home. &quot;The first priority should be restoring a safe and peaceful situation,&quot; the 63-year-old told AFP. Slow start Snaking queues of voters formed outside polling stations in the last election in 2020, which the military declared void when it ousted Suu Kyi and seized power in 2021. But this time journalists and polling staff outnumbered early voters at a downtown station near the gleaming Sule Pagoda &ndash; the site of huge pro-democracy protests after the coup. Among a trickle of early voters, 45-year-old Swe Maw dismissed international criticism. &quot;It&#39;s not an important matter,&quot; he said. &quot;There are always people who like and dislike.&quot; The run-up saw none of the feverish public rallies that Suu Kyi once commanded, and the junta has waged a withering pre-vote offensive to claw back territory. &quot;It is impossible for this election to be free and fair,&quot; said Moe Moe Myint, who has spent the past two months &quot;on the run&quot; from junta air strikes. &quot;How can we support a junta-run election when this military has destroyed our lives?&quot; she told AFP from a village in the central Mandalay region. &quot;We are homeless, hiding in jungles, and living between life and death,&quot; said the 40-year-old. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has not responded to AFP requests for interview, but has consistently framed the polls as a path to reconciliation. Electronic voting The military ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history before a 10-year interlude saw a civilian government take the reins in a burst of optimism and reform. But after Suu Kyi&#39;s National League for Democracy party trounced pro-military opponents in the 2020 elections, Min Aung Hlaing snatched power in a coup, alleging widespread voter fraud. Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence for charges rights groups dismiss as politically motivated. &quot;I don&#39;t think she would consider these elections to be meaningful in any way,&quot; her son Kim Aris said from his home in Britain. Most parties from the 2020 vote, including Suu Kyi&#39;s, have since been dissolved. The Asian Network for Free Elections says 90% of the seats in the last elections went to organizations that will not appear on Sunday&#39;s ballots. New electronic voting machines will not allow write-in candidates or spoiled ballots. &#39;Repression&#39; The junta is pursuing prosecutions against more than 200 people for violating draconian legislation forbidding &quot;disruption&quot; of the poll, including protest or criticism. &quot;These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,&quot; UN rights chief Volker Turk said this week. The second round of polling will take place in two weeks before the third and final round on January 25, but the junta has conceded elections cannot happen in almost one in five lower house constituencies. When the military seized power it put down pro-democracy protests, and many activists quit the cities to fight as guerrillas alongside ethnic minority armies that have long held sway in Myanmar&#39;s fringes. &quot;There are many ways to make peace in the country, but they haven&#39;t chosen those &ndash; they&#39;ve chosen to have an election instead,&quot; said Zaw Tun, an officer in the pro-democracy People&#39;s Defence Force in the northern region of Sagaing. &quot;We will continue to fight.&quot;

Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, while her hugely popular party has been dissolved and was not taking part.

Articles tagged with "Min Aung Hlaing"

Myanmar parliament to elect new president Friday: Speaker

Myanmar junta stages election after five years of civil war