Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who led a coup against Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, has become the country’s president after winning a parliamentary vote on Friday.
The presidential vote formalised his grip on political power in the war-torn nation five years after he ousted the Nobel laureate’s elected government in 2021, which plunged the South Asian country into a civil war. The move marks a nominal return to an elected government but is widely considered to be an effort to keep the army in power.
In a live broadcast of the vote count in a parliament dominated by the election-winning Union Solidarity and Development Party and the military’s quota of appointed armed forces legislators, the former commander-in-chief comfortably passed the threshold required to win the presidential vote. The military and its allies hold nearly 90 per cent of the seats in the two-chamber parliament.
The transition from top general to civilian president follows a lopsided election in December and January that was won in a landslide by an army-backed party and derided by critics and Western governments as a sham to perpetuate military rule behind a veneer of democracy.
Min Aung Hlaing, who has been sanctioned by several Western nations, including the US, was almost certain to become president after being nominated alongside two loyalists last week. The 69-year-old general has led the military junta in Myanmar for 15 years and was seen as coveting the presidency.
After casting his vote inside the heavily-guarded capital of Naypyitaw on 28 December, a smiling Min Aung Hlaing walked up to a gaggle of reporters, where he was asked if he planned to become president following the polls. “I can’t simply say that I want to do this or that. I am not a leader of a political party,” he said.
On Monday, Min Aung Hlaing stepped down as the chief of Myanmar’s armed forces to seek the presidency, while also appointing a staunch loyalist – former spymaster Ye Win Oo – to succeed him as the commander of the military.
“He has long harboured the ambition to trade his title of commander-in-chief for president and it appears his dreams are now becoming a reality,” said Aung Kyaw Soe, an independent Myanmar analyst.
Myanmar has been gripped by violence since the military wrested power from the democratically elected government of Suu Kyi, despite her party winning a landslide victory.
The country has since been embroiled in a civil war, which has killed thousands of people and displaced millions. The conflict intensified in 2023 after the Three Brotherhood Alliance launched offensives against the army.
Born to a family from Myanmar’s south, Min Aung Hlaing studied law before entering the military and rising steadily through the ranks, culminating in his promotion to military chief in 2011. A rigid military leader and considered a ruthless operator, he has also relied on a finely tuned ability to manage the country’s elites, using tactics that include handing important positions to loyalists and punishing political rivals.
