Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing was elected president on Friday after breezing through a parliamentary vote, formalising his grip on political power in the war-torn nation five years after he ousted an elected government in a coup, Reuters reports.
On Friday, lawmakers from the dominant Union Solidarity and Development Party and the military’s quota of appointed armed forces legislators coalesced to back Min Aung Hlaing, with the former commander-in-chief winning the vote by a huge margin.
Despite initially trailing to Nyo Saw, a retired general and the junta’s prime minister, Min Aung Hlaing pulled ahead to win 429 votes to Nyo Saw’s 126.
Min Aung Hlaing’s ascent to the presidency – a position that analysts say he has long sought – followed a major reshuffle in the leadership of Myanmar’s armed forces, which he had led since 2011.
A coup d’état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country’s ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military, which then vested power in a military junta. Acting President of Myanmar Myint Swe proclaimed a year-long state of emergency and declared power had been transferred to Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. It declared the results of the November 2020 general election invalid and stated its intent to hold a new election at the end of the state of emergency.
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