Military Chief Min Aung Hlaing.
Image: AFP
Myanmar lawmakers will elect a new president on Friday, the parliamentary speaker said, with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing one of three candidates for the post.
The former commander in chief has led Myanmar since 2021, when he ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and triggered a civil war.
He was one of three vice presidents elected by lawmakers on Tuesday, receiving 247 of 260 votes in the lower house.
"Among the three vice presidents... (members of parliament) have to vote to select and elect the one vice president they prefer as the President," parliamentary speaker Aung Lin Dwe said Thursday, adding the vote will be held at 10:00 am (0330 GMT).
The other two vice presidents are Nan Ni Ni Aye, a regional MP from Karen state with the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and current Prime Minister Nyo Saw.
Democracy watchdogs have long warned that the new government will be a proxy of the military, which has ruled Myanmar for the vast majority of its post-independence history.
The generals loosened their grip for a decade-long democratic experiment beginning in 2011, allowing Aung San Suu Kyi to ascend as civilian leader and steer a period of reform as the nation opened up.
But after Aung San Suu Kyi trounced the USDP in a landslide in 2020 elections, Min Aung Hlaing snatched back power.
After five years of hardline rule, the top general oversaw heavily restricted elections that returned a walkover win for pro-military parties in January.
Now the USDP -- led and staffed by many retired officers -- is entrenched in parliament after winning 80 percent of elected seats, and it is expected the new government will march in lockstep with the top brass.
Min Aung Hlaing is expected to manage a carefully orchestrated transition to becoming president, after he handed over the reins of the military to loyalist Ye Win Oo on Monday.
AFP