Candidates nominated for Myanmar presidency

Candidates nominated for Myanmar presidency

by DIPD on March 10, 2016

Myanmar demonstration

Following the 8 November 2015 elections, the 5 presidential candidates have been nominated from the upper house, lower house and military block respectively. The new President will be elected before the end of March.

After months of speculation, the candidates for Myanmar’s next presidency have finally been announced. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), who won 77.1 percent of the contested seats at the November election, have nominated its candidates from the two chambers of Myanmar’s Parliament.

From the Lower House (Amyotha Hluttaw), Htin Kyaw has been nominated. The 69-year-old Oxford graduate is known to be one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s closest friends and allies and is the son-in-law of NLD co-founder U Lwin. And from the Upper House (Pyithu Hluttaw), Henry Van Thio, a MP of the ethnic Chin minority, has been nominated.

Meanwhile, the military supporting Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), who won 10.2 percent of the contested seats at the aforementioned elections, have also nominated two candidates. From the Upper House, Khin Aung Myint, an USDP lawmaker, has been nominated, and from the Lower House, outgoing Vice President Sai Mauk Khan has been nominated.

The military bloc, who holds 25 percent of the parliamentary seats, has nominated former Chief Minister for Yangon Division, Myint Swe.

A three-step process

These initial nominations are only the first step in the presidential election process. On 17 and 18 March, the union parliament will convene and the two houses will vote on which of the nominated candidates will go through to the final vote. The final group of candidates will therefore consist of one candidate from the Upper House, one from the Lower house and the nominated from the military block.

Before the end of the month, and maybe even on 17-18 March, the new President will be elected, with the two unsuccessful finalist becoming Vice Presidents.

The new President will then pick its cabinet, which will take over from current President Thein Sein’s outgoing government on 1 April 2016.

Where does Aung San Suu Kyi fit in?

After NLD’s landslide victory in November, the national and international media has speculated about the future role of the iconic Aung San Suu Kyi. According to article 59 (f) of the military drafted constitution, Suu Kyi is banned from becoming the nation’s president on account of her late husband and her two children being British citizens. She is still expected to play a very prominent role in leading the country after 1 April 2016, though, and she has previously stated that she will rule the country from “above the president”.

There has also been speculation that she is set to become Foreign Minister, which would grant her a position in the President’s cabinet and a seat on the influential, military-dominated Security Council, but it would also mean that she would have to give up her party role due to the laws of Myanmar’s political system.

Before the end of the March, months of speculation will have materialized in to actions and Myanmar will begin the next chapter of its democratic transition.

For More information

Khin Thazin Myint, Myanmar Country Coordinator, +95 9 421 009 560 (ktzm@dipd.dk) or

Hanne Lund Madsen, Senior Adviser, +45 38402802 (hlm@dipd.dk)

Read more about the DIPD engagement in Myanmar or at the MMDP website

From: Myanmar, News and updates