Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing elected president
Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has won a parliamentary vote to become the country’s president, formalizing his grip on political power in the war-torn country five years after overthrowing an elected government.
The 69-year-old general staged a coup against the rule of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and arrested her, sparking widespread protests against the junta that turned into armed resistance across the country.
The transition from top general to civilian president followed a lopsided election in December and January that was won overwhelmingly by a military-backed party and was cast by critics and Western governments as a fraud aimed at maintaining military rule behind the veneer of democracy.
Former commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing easily passed the threshold needed to win the presidential election, in live coverage of Friday’s vote count in a parliament dominated by the winning Union Solidarity and Development Party and the military’s appointed quota of armed forces legislators.
Min Aung Hlaing’s ascension to the presidency – a position analysts have long sought – follows a major change in the leadership of Myanmar’s armed forces, which he has led since 2011.
Min Aung Hlaing, who was nominated as a presidential candidate in parliament on Monday, named Ye Win Oo, a former intelligence chief seen as fiercely loyal to the general, as his successor to lead the military.
The military’s takeover and Min Aung Hlaing’s ascension to the presidency are seen by analysts as a strategic pivot to protect the interests of the armed forces, which have directly ruled the country for five of the last six decades, while also consolidating his power and gaining international legitimacy as the head of a nominally civilian government.
“He has long had the desire to change the title of commander-in-chief to president, and it looks like his dreams are now coming true,” said Aung Kyaw Soe, an independent Myanmar analyst.
Yet the civil war that has devastated Myanmar for much of the last five years continues to rage; Remnants of Suu Kyi’s party and some anti-junta groups comprising long-standing ethnic minority armies are forming a new united front against the military this week.
“Our vision and strategic goals are to completely eliminate all forms of dictatorship, including military dictatorship, and collectively usher in a new political landscape,” the Steering Council for the Emergence of the Federal Democratic Union said in a statement on Monday. he said.
Analysts say resistance groups could face intense military pressure as well as increased scrutiny from neighboring countries seeking to strengthen relations with Min Aung Hlaing’s new administration.
