Aung San Suu Kyi not on NLD list for Myanmar president

By Kyaw Ye Lynn

YANGON, Myanmar

After months of speculation, Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has named its candidates for the Myanmar presidency as parliament starts its nomination process in capital Nay Pyi Taw.

None of the four candidates named Thursday is the Nobel Peace laureate.

The NLD -- the party that emerged victorious in the Nov. 8 election -- nominated Htin Kyaw, a British university graduate who is the executive of a non-profit charity organization -- as its candidate for the country’s next president in the lower house Thursday, while the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) nominated outgoing vice president Sai Mauk Khan for the post.

Meanwhile, the upper house saw the NLD go for Henry Van Thio, an ethnic Chin, while a USDP lawmaker nominated former upper house speaker Khin Aung Myint who lost his seat in last year's vote.

Oxford-graduate Htin Kyaw is highly tipped to take the post.

The NLD's Min Thu told the Anadolu Agency Thursday that “Htin Kyaw will probably be elected president as he is good in dealing with international community.”

“And he is honest, and one of Daw Suu’s trusted right-hand men,” he added.

Daw, meaning "aunt", is not part of Suu Kyi's name but is a Myanmar honorific for anyone older or revered.

In addition to the four candidates named Thursday, a fifth will be nominated Friday by military-appointed MPs, who hold 25 percent of seats in parliament.

On March 17-18, when the union parliament convenes, each house will vote on which of the four initial candidates goes through to a final vote.

The final vote sees one candidate from each house compete with the military-appointed candidate for the presidency.

A mass vote by all houses -- including the military-appointed MPs -- sees one candidate become president, while the other two become vice presidents.

The NLD victory put the party in a position to take control of the country’s parliament and elect the next president, however party leader Suu Kyi is banned from taking the top post by article 59 (f) of the military-drafted constitution.

Many suspect the clause is aimed solely at her, as it bars anyone with foreign relatives -- Suu Kyi’s late husband was British, as are her two sons -- from becoming president.

Suu Kyi, however, has said she will rule the country from “above the president”.

Htin Kyaw, born in 1946, graduated from Yangon Institute of Economics and then from Oxford University in 1972.

His father, Min Thuwun -- a national poet -- was elected as an MP for the NLD in the 1990 election.