Myanmar's parliament has elected an ally of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi as president. Htin Kyaw abruptly resigned as president last week.
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Myanmar's parliament on Wednesday elected Win Myint as president, a week after Htin Kyaw announced his sudden resignation.
The 66-year-old ally of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been speaker of the lower house of parliament since 2016, shortly after the National League for Democracy (NLD) swept November elections the previous year.
Last week, Win Myint resigned as speaker of the lower house to become vice president. This paved the way for him to be elected president, who is chosen from three vice presidents by a sitting of both houses of parliament.
He won 403 votes from the 636 lawmakers in a vote largely split along NLD and military lines.
Military holds sway
Myanmar's military ruled the country for nearly half a century until a partial transition to democracy in 2016. The military still controls security. Under the constitution, it maintains 25 percent of seats in parliament and three security positions in the Cabinet.
Both Win Myint and Htin Kyaw are close allies of Suu Kyi, who is barred from the presidency under 2008 military-drafted constitution. Instead, the Nobel laureate holds the title of state counselor, a position she has described as "above the president." She is also the chairperson of the NLD.
Win Myint enters the presidency as the country is under international pressure over allegations of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims. Suu Kyi apparent defense of the military's counterinsurgency campaign and rights abuses against Rohingya has tarnished the image of the pro-democracy leader.
Meanwhile, the civilian government has had difficulty implementing a national reconciliation project, with the military continuing fighting against multiple long-running insurgencies.
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi had the global community rooting for her when she was the world's most famous political prisoner. But in recent years she was accused of standing by while soldiers massacred Rohingya Muslims.
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Darling of democracy
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's assassinated founding father Aung San, returned to her home country in the late 1980s after studying and starting a family in England. She became a key figure in the 1988 uprisings against the country's military dictatorship. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) was victorious in 1990 elections, but the government refused to honor the vote.
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Military rule
Suu Kyi spent 15 of the 21 years between 1989 and 2010 under house arrest. After 1995, the rights advocate was barred from seeing her two sons and husband, Michael Aris, even after the latter was diagnosed with cancer. Aris, seen here displaying an honorary doctorate awarded to his wife, died in 1999.
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'The Lady'
Suu Kyi's determination to bring democracy and human rights to her country won her international renown, including the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She was so popular that in 2011 famous French director Luc Besson made a biopic of her life starring Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh. Suu Kyi was often called the world's most famous political prisoner.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Seven Media/Doha Film Institute
Sworn in as lawmaker
Decades of campaigning finally paid off, and in 2012 Suu Kyi was allowed to run in free elections. She won a seat in parliament as Myanmar began its transition away from military government. After general elections in 2015, she became the country's de facto civilian leader, although officially she held the post of foreign minister and state counselor — a role akin to prime minister.
Image: AP
Persecution of the Rohingya
Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic group, had their citizenship revoked by Myanmar's Buddhist-majority government in 1982. Long persecuted, their plight intensified in 2016 when Myanmar's military began what it called "clearance" of illegal immigrants. Groups such as Human Rights Watch have described it as "ethnic cleansing." Thousands have died, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
Image: Reuters/D. Siddiqui
Fall from grace
When she became state counselor in 2016, Suu Kyi set up a commission to investigate claims of atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine state. Suu Kyi accused the Rohingya of spreading "a huge iceberg of misinformation," and said she was concerned by the "terrorist threat" posed by extremists. Her stance sparked protests in Muslim-majority countries around the world.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/J. Laghari
Nobel no more?
Due to her handling of the Rohingya crisis, Suu Kyi was stripped of various honors and lost much of her international support. The Nobel committee was forced to issue a statement saying that her peace prize could not be revoked. Fellow Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai called on Suu Kyi to "stop the violence." Suu Kyi said that outsiders could not grasp the complexities of the situation.
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A controversial election
In 2020, Myanmar's ruling National League for Democracy party won the November 8 general election, with enough seats to form the next government. However, the military's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development party, claimed fraud and demanded a new election supervised by the military. With that came comments alluding to a possible coup. Supporters of the party also marched in protest.
Image: Shwe Paw Mya Tin/REUTERS
Military detains Suu Kyi
Myanmar's civilian leader, along with several of her political allies, were detained in an early morning raid on February 1, 2021 led by the military. The move came amid escalating tensions between the civilian government and army, which had been in control for decades.The junta claimed electoral fraud, announced a yearlong state of emergency and named a former general as acting president.
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Speculation is rife that Win Myint may try to carve out more powers for himself, which is allowed under the constitution but effectively blocked by Suu Kyi.
However, Khin Zaw Win, the director of the Tampadipa Institute, a policy advocacy group, said the new president will remain under the control of Suu Kyi.
"To those who are asking, he will be forever Aung San Suu Kyi's henchman," he said. "I don't expect much change in the presidency, unless Win Myint puts the country's interests before Aung San Suu Kyi's and that of the military."
Who is Win Myint?
Win Myint was born in the Irrawaddy Delta in 1951. He studied geology in Yangoon before becoming a lawyer in the 1980s.
He joined the NLD when it was founded around pro-democracy protests in 1988. He had been jailed several times under military rule, including following the 1988 protests. His son died during his time in prison.
"I do not bear a grudge against the military, but I want my son with me on a day like this," he said after taking the position of speaker of parliament in March 2016.
In 1990, Win Myint won a seat in parliament for the NLD in an election that was quickly nullified by the military. He was also elected in 2012 and 2015.
He has been a member of the NLD central committee since 2010.