It was a moment of glory for Suu Kyi whose National League for Democracy won a thumping victory in the elections in November, allowing her party to dominate Myanmar’s two legislative houses.
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Ms. Suu Kyi’s government will also face the challenge of pulling Myanmar out of decades of economic backwardness while addressing ethnic and religious differences.
Myint Swe is seen as a close ally of former junta leader Than Shwe and remains on a United States blacklist that bars American companies from business activities with several tycoons and senior military figures connected with the former junta.
“This is a victory for the people of this country”, Mr Htin Kyaw said. U Htin Kyaw was elected with 360 votes while U Myint Swe from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), who was directly assigned by the military, was elected first Vice President with 213 votes.
“This is the good will and loving kindness of the people”. His naming came after peace and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi was been ruled out as a candidate.
Ms Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by a clause in the charter because she married and had children with a foreigner.
The 47-year-old and one-time political prisoner has sat since February in Myanmar’s first democratically elected parliament after almost a half-century of military dictatorship.
Aung San Suu Kyi has declared she will hold power over the president, whom she has known since primary school.
In the run up to the vote, the military questioned the qualifications of both Htin Kyaw and an NLD candidate for vice president, Henry Van Thio, underscoring tensions that have risen as the two sides started working on the details of the transfer of power. Her choice of Htin Kyaw is seen as a testament to her absolute faith in his loyalty.
In an interview with AFP about the charity’s work in July 2015, Htin Kyaw spoke of the steep climb Myanmar faced to claw its way out of poverty. In 2007 Mr. Ban set up the “Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar”, a consultative forum of 14 countries to assist him in his efforts to spur change in the South-East Asian nation.
“He will have to understand this perfectly well that he will have no authority, that he will act in accordance with the decisions of the party”.
In a varied career he worked as a university teacher and also held positions in the finance and national planning and foreign affairs ministries in the late 1970s and 80s before retiring from government service as the military tightened its grip.
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But one of the most crucial tasks will be to manage the relationship with the military, which retains significant power including control of the vital home, defence and border ministries.
