NEWS PEOPLE

Former Myanmar Military Chief Elected President

Share on

MYANMAR’S  former military chief Min Aung Hlaing was elected president of Myanmar after stepping down on March 30 to seek the presidency in the general’s latest efforts to maintain power behind the facade of a civilian administration. Min Aung Hlaing has ruled Myanmar since 2021 when he ordered a coup that toppled Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government and triggered a civil war.

The move has paved the way for him to become president and maintain his rule in civilian garb with lawmakers nominating him as a vice-presidential candidate and the junta replacing him as military commander. Three vice-presidents will be chosen, one of whom will be elected as president in a parliament-wide vote.

It follows a controversial heavily-restricted election held in December last year and January that criminalised protest or criticism of the vote and was won by a military-backed party. Democracy watchdogs have long warned the government will be a proxy of the military, which has ruled Myanmar for the vast majority of its post-independence history.

The civil war, which continues to rage, has killed nearly 93,000 people, displaced more than 3.6 million people, and further damaged an already weak economy.

At a ceremony in the capital Naypyitaw, Min Aung Hlaing handed over the position of commander-in-chief of the armed forces to Ye Win Oo, a veteran officer from his inner circle. “I will continue to serve the interests of the people, the military, and the national interests of the country,” Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech broadcast by military-owned media.

Ye Win Oo was appointed Myanmar’s intelligence chief in 2020, and was promoted to commander-in-chief of the army in early March.

Myanmar was under military rule from 1962 until 2016, when Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party came to power after a landslide 2015 election victory. It won an even greater mandate in the 2020 general election, but the army seized power before the new parliament could convene.–-shp/adj/dl (Pix:MM GOVT)