Myanmar’s junta strongman Min Aung Hlaing moved a step nearer to becoming the country’s civilian president on Monday after lawmakers nominated him for a three-way runoff that observers view largely as a formality.
The 69-year-old general, who seized power in a 2021 coup that ousted Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has presided over a period of armed internal conflict and harsh repression of dissent, including laws criminalizing protest. That crackdown helped produce landslide wins for pro-military parties in January’s parliamentary election.
Lower house MP Kyaw Kyaw Htay nominated Min Aung Hlaing on Monday morning for the vice-presidential slot. Parliament will now hold a vote between him and two other candidates to choose the president. Former spymaster Ye Win Oo, a close ally, is set to take over as military commander.
Analysts say the move is aimed at securing a civilian veneer for continued military rule. In 2011 Myanmar’s military allowed Aung San Suu Kyi to assume a civilian leadership role after years of house arrest, but following her party’s 2020 election victory Min Aung Hlaing is believed to have grown alarmed at the army’s declining influence and plotted the coup.
“This political maneuvering signals that Min Aung Hlaing intends to continue ruling the country with an iron fist,” Naing Min Khant of the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar told AFP. “He fundamentally lacks legitimacy but desperately craves the facade of it.”
Edited by: Natalie Muller