Htin Kyaw meanwhile has maintained his silence, and according to one person who knows him, is “highly unlikely to stray from the path” set by the party leader.
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“Today’s result is because of the love of people for her. It is the victory of my sister Aung San Suu Kyi”, U Htin Kyaw said after the vote.
After an unsuccessful campaign to persuade Myanmar’s military chiefs to support an amendment or reinterpretation of the constitution, the 70-year-old NLD leader declared she would be “above the president” and run the government from the sidelines.
President Barack Obama’s White House on Tuesday welcomed Htin Kyaw’s election as Myanmar’s first civilian president in half a century, saying it was “an important step” in the country’s democratization.
Burma’s parliament elected Htin Kyaw as the country’s new president Tuesday, a watershed moment that ushers the longtime opposition party of Aung San Suu Kyi into government.
Myint Swe received 213 votes and Henry Van Thio took 79 votes.
“I hearby declare that U Htin HtinKyaw has been elected the president with the most votes”, parliamentary speaker Mann Win Khaing Than told legislators. Suu Kyi’s two sons are British, as was her late husband. He is also the former high school classmate of Aung San Suu Kyi and is a party loyalist.
Even as a number of closed-door discussions did not provide Suu Kyi the opportunity to become president, she said she is determined to rule the country through a proxy.
Suu Kyi apparently chose U Htin Kyaw “not because he has political experience, since he doesn’t, but because she trusts him”.
The retired general headed the feared military intelligence unit and is still on the United States sanctions list. Suu Kyi and other regime opponents have refused to adopt the name change, as have the USA and Britain.
A key task will be managing relations with the military, which still retains a significant wedge of power in parliament and controls the vital home, defence and border ministries.
“On behalf of the Indonesian Government, I would like to congratulate President Htin Kyaw on winning the election”, said President Jokowi at the President’s Office on Wednesday, March 16, 2016.
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Military reserved one third quarter of seat in both houses of Myanmar’s parliament thus barring any kind of constitutional amendment. Ms Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later, and it was about this time that Mr Htin Kyaw – then a computer programmer-turned-bureaucrat – became involved in party work. He is a member of the Chin ethnic group from the northwest of Myanmar.
