Suu Kyi loyalist confirmed for Myanmar presidential race

A long-time confidante of Aung San Suu Kyi was confirmed Friday in a parliamentary vote as one of the three final candidates to be Myanmar’s next president, albeit as a proxy for the Nobel laureate.

Htin Kyaw of the National League for Democracy party was approved by a 274-29 vote in the lower house of parliament to be a finalist for the presidential election next week.

A second NLD candidate. Henry Van Tio, was chosen as the second finalist by the upper house with a 148-13 vote. A third candidate will be put forward by the military bloc, which has a constitutionally mandated 25 per cent of reserved seats in parliament.

Legislators from both houses of parliament will hold another round of voting – for which no date has been set – to choose one of them as president, which almost certainly will be the 70-year-old Htin Kyaw. The other two will become vice presidents.

“We are satisfied that Htin Kyaw has won to become one of the presidential candidates. We believe that we soon will be able create a better future for our country. We chose him because he is skillful and a very suitable person to be the president,” said Myo Zaw Aung, an NLD legislator.

Friday’s vote became necessary because, in an unexpected move, the outgoing ruling party put forward its own two candidates Thursday, even though their candidacy was doomed from the start.