Myanmar Parliament elects new speaker from Suu Kyi's party

Myanmar Parliament elects new speaker from Suu Kyi’s party

EFE

Feb. 3, 2016 9:14 AM PT

Bangkok, Feb 3 (EFE). —

The Upper House of Myanmar’s Parliament Wednesday elected a new speaker from Nobel Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s party National League for Democracy, or NLD.

Suu Kyi’s NLD used the vast majority it won in the Nov. 8 election to choose Mann Than Win Khaing of Kayin minority as the Upper House speaker, according to news website The Irrawaddy.

Aye Tha Aung of the Rakhine minority Arakan National Party, was elected deputy speaker of the Upper House in which the NLD holds 135 out of the 168 seats.

The formation of the Upper House took place two days after that of the Lower House, where NLD also holds a majority and elected its candidate as the speaker.

The NLD has won 80 percent of the total number of seats in the Parliament, where a quarter of the 653 seats are reserved for the army in accordance with the Constitution adopted by the last military junta.

After its formation, each House will propose a candidate for the president of the country who, along with a third proposed by the army, will be elected in a joint vote of the Legislature.

Suu Kyi is not eligible for nomination as a provision in the constitution bars candidates with foreign relatives to run for president, and the NLD leader’s two sons hold British passports.

Suu Kyi, however, had said before the elections, she will rule from a position “above the president” and lead the next government, which in early April will replace the one formed by former army generals of the late military junta, even though she did not clarify how.

Local media reported recently that Suu Kyi met the head of the armed forces, Min Aung Hlaing, to talk about the possibility of her being the head of the state, which would require an amendment of the Constitution.

Burma was ruled by military regimes from 1962 to 2011, when the junta transferred power to a civilian government led by Thein Sein, the last prime minister of the dictatorship, and who began implementing political, economic and social reforms to establish a “disciplined democracy.”