Parliament to elect Myanmar’s new President today

NLD party leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrives to attend a meeting of her party legislators in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Monday. — AP

Myanmar’s Parliament confirmed it will pick the country’s new President on Tuesday after the three proposed candidates, including a close aide of Aung San Suu Kyi, passed a final administrative hurdle.

The vote comes as the formerly Army-ruled nation transitions towards its first civilian government in decades.

The frontrunner is Htin Kyaw, a respected writer and close friend of Ms Suu Kyi.

He has been put forward by her National League for Democracy party to act as a proxy for democracy veteran Ms Suu Kyi, who is barred from the highest office by a junta-scripted charter.

Under Myanmar’s complex constitution, the President is chosen from three candidates — one put forward by each of the two legislative chambers and a third proposed by the military, who are reserved a quarter of the seats in Parliament.

All three candidates were approved by a final scrutiny committee on Monday.

Mann Win Khaing Than, the Speaker of both Houses, said legislators would now cast their votes on Tuesday with the winner becoming President and the two runners-up automatically becoming vice-presidents.

Mr Kyaw, a soft-spoken man with a penchant for literature and writing, gave up a career in the foreign ministry decades ago to help Ms Suu Kyi, his childhood friend, with her political party. When Myanmar was under military rule, he ended up in the junta’s prison along with other pro-democracy activists.

But he kept such a low profile that journalists were left scrambling to find out anything about Mr Kyaw when his nomination was announced last week. After all, he was only the nameless face often appearing behind Ms Suu Kyi in pictures taken during her infrequent public appearances before she was freed from long periods of house arrests.