Who is Htin Kyaw, Burma's new president

Rights · Rebecca Pozzi Taubert · 2016-03-15

Burma's new president is Htin Kyaw, a long-standing friend and trusted ally of Aung San Suu Kyi. Parliament confirmed his appointment on 15 March.

Myanmar's new president is Htin Kyaw, 69, the man closest to Aung San Suu Kyi. He was nominated on 10 March by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and his appointment was confirmed by parliament on Tuesday 15 March.

Burma's parliament on 10 March © Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images

Aung San Suu Kyi of the NLD during a meeting at the Sibin Guesthouse, where many members of parliament from her party are staying, on 10 March, in the capital Naypyidaw © Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images

Many NLD members will sleep in rooms furnished with nothing but wooden beds, a mattress and a pillow. The rooms are far from the buildings where the (military) parliamentarians of the outgoing government lived, but it is the only option for the new parliamentarians who were political prisoners or activists earning a salary of just $3,880 a year © Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images

Outgoing Burmese president Thein Sein © Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Burma's presidential election

The NLD, which had secured an absolute majority in both chambers of parliament during the general elections held in November 2015, unveiled the names of its two candidates on 10 March. The third was put forward the following day by the military, which controls a quarter of the seats in parliament.

Once a parliamentary committee made up of seven legislators had verified the eligibility of the three candidates, the president was officially elected by a joint vote of the two chambers of parliament. Htin Kyaw received 360 votes out of a total of 652. The other two candidates became vice-presidents: the military's candidate Myint Swe received 213 votes, followed by 58-year-old retired military officer Henry Van Hti Yu, nominated by the NLD. The new government will begin its term on 1 April.

Il partito di Aung San Suu Kyi, la Lega nazionale per la democrazia, ha ottenuto una vittoria schiacciante nelle elezioni parlamentari, le prime dopo decenni di dittatura militare © Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images — Aung Sun Suu Kyi © Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images

Who is Htin Kyaw

Burma's new president, Htin Kyaw, is 69 years old and originally from Yangon, Burma's financial capital. He is one of Aung San Suu Kyi's oldest friends and one of her most trusted allies. "Kyaw enjoys a great reputation within the party and his father-in-law, U Lwin, is one of its founders," reports the national newspaper Irrawaddy. Htin Kyaw was a fellow student of Aung San Suu Kyi and, during the 15 years in which the NLD leader was under house arrest, he visited her regularly.

Aung San Suu Kyi, leader from behind the scenes

Before the candidates were announced, many NLD supporters had hoped to see Aung San Suu Kyi become president. This would only have been possible with an amendment to the 2008 constitution written by the military, which bars citizens who have family members of foreign origin from becoming president. However, the party leader, who has two British sons, has confirmed on multiple occasions that she will nonetheless lead the party from behind the scenes.

"This is the first step towards fulfilling the wishes and expectations of the people who supported the National League for Democracy so overwhelmingly during the elections," Aung San Suu Kyi wrote on her Facebook page. Burma's new government will be the first to be democratically elected in fifty years of military dictatorship.

Translated by Camilla Soldati