April 3 (Reuters) – Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing faces a parliamentary vote on Friday on his bid to become the country’s president, as he seeks to formalise his grip on political power five years after his coup against an elected government.
His expected transition from top general to civilian president follows a recent lopsided election won overwhelmingly by an army-backed party, which critics and Western governments derided as a sham to perpetuate military rule behind a veneer of democracy.
The 69-year-old general orchestrated the 2021 coup that forced out the government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and placed her under arrest, sparking widespread protests that morphed into nationwide armed resistance against the junta.
Lawmakers from the Union Solidarity and Development Party, which won 81% of available seats, are expected to join the military’s quota of appointed legislators in backing former commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing from three candidates nominated, with parliament proceedings starting at 10 a.m. local time (0330 GMT).
‘DREAMS BECOMING REALITY’
Min Aung Hlaing’s bid for the presidency – a position that analysts say he has long sought – had been kept under wraps until this week and followed the announcement of a major reshuffle in the leadership of Myanmar’s armed forces, which he had led since 2011.
On Monday, as he was nominated in parliament as a presidential candidate, Min Aung Hlaing anointed Ye Win Oo, a former intelligence chief seen as fiercely loyal to the general, as his successor to lead the military.
The military handover and Min Aung Hlaing’s expected presidency are seen by analysts as a strategic pivot to consolidate his control of Myanmar as head of a nominally civilian government, while serving the interests of an armed forces that has run the country directly for five of the past six decades.
“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.
CIVIL WAR PERSISTS
Still, the civil war that has wrecked Myanmar for much of the last five years is raging, with some anti-junta groups – including those comprising remnants of Suu Kyi’s party and longstanding ethnic minority armies – forming a new combined front this week to take on the military.
“Our vision and strategic objectives are to completely dismantle all forms of dictatorship, including the military dictatorship, and to collectively initiate a new political landscape,” the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union said in a statement on Monday.
Resistance groups could face intensified military pressure as well as increased scrutiny from neighbouring countries that may seek to bolster their relationship with the new administration, analysts say.
“Amidst global oil and fuel shortages and economic crises, maintaining organisational stability could become difficult,” analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe said of the opposition.
“As these hardships grow, it may become even harder to build mutual understanding and trust between groups, reach firmer agreements, and sustain cooperation.”
(Reporting by Reuters Staff; Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Martin Petty)
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