Myanmar junta chief nominated for presidential vote as transition looms

(Reuters)

March 30 – Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was nominated by a lawmaker on Monday for a parliamentary vote that will select the new president of the war-torn Southeast Asian nation, as the powerful general seeks a political role.

Min Aung Hlaing, who has led ​Myanmar’s military since 2011, was one of two people named as vice-presidential candidates by lawmakers from the ​country’s newly convened lower house of parliament.

The country’s upper house will also nominate a vice-presidential ⁠candidate, with both houses to select a president from the three in a later vote. A date ​for that vote has not been announced.

“Senior General Min Aung Hlaing is proposed as a vice presidential candidate,” ​Kyaw Kway Htay, a lawmaker from a military-aligned party, said on the floor of the lower house of parliament, according to a live broadcast of proceedings on state media.

The move follows a controversial election held amid raging conflict in December and January, won ​by the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party but widely derided as a sham by the United Nations ​and many Western countries.

Myanmar has been gripped by violence since a 2021 coup, in which the military, also known ‌as the ⁠Tatmadaw, unseated the democratically elected government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.