Myanmar's Union Solidarity and Development Party to pick new chief
No 2 man and reformer Shwe Mann is waiting in the wings to lead the battle against the Suu-Kyi-led opposition in the 2015 election
Myanmar's army-backed ruling party is preparing for a leadership revamp as the dramatic political reforms that it has helped foster threaten to bring an electoral wipeout in 2015.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party, created by former generals who shed their uniforms to run for office, will kick off a three-day conference today to choose a new party chief and try to map out a new strategy.
The top post has remained vacant since Thein Sein, now 67, stepped down last year to take office as president of Myanmar amid the country's emergence from decades of outright military rule.
Rival reformer Shwe Mann, the lower house speaker and USDP vice-president, is seen as the favourite to replace him at the helm of the party, which has huge financial resources at hand to woo voters.
"Most USDP members want Shwe Mann to be chairman," one member of parliament from the party said. "He's the one who can lead the party."
The USDP swept a ballot two years ago that was marred by claims of fraud and the absence of Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released from house arrest just days later.
But Suu Kyi led the opposition to a landslide victory in April by-elections that left the ruling party staring at almost certain defeat in three years if the vote is free and fair.