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        Aung San Suu Kyi's Handpicked Nominee Step Closer to Presidency

   by Steve Herman

   In Myanmar's lower house of parliament Friday an unelected retired
   bureaucrat from the National League for Democracy (NLD), Htin Kyaw,
   trounced the country's incumbent vice president, Sai Mauk Kham of the
   Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), 274 to 29 in first-round
   balloting to move a step closer to the presidency.

   It is the latest exercise in democracy as Aung San Suu Kyi's party
   prepares to take the reins of government from President Thein Sein in a
   ceremony on March 30 that will end decades of military dominance.

   NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi led her lawmakers in Friday's voting for
   her handpicked candidate, who is virtually ensured to become president.

   ''

   Htin Kyaw was rarely a newsmaker prior to this week. Until now, his
   biggest claim to fame was perhaps being the first person sent abroad by
   Yangon University, in 1971, to study computer science.

   Aung San Suu Kyi's proxy for the presidency, however, is well known in
   the NLD inner circle. He is on the party's executive committee and is
   married to lawmaker Su Su Lwin, daughter of an NLD co-founder.

   ''

   But most lawmakers and observers are disappointed she could not find a
   way around the constitutional prohibition against anyone becoming
   president who has children with foreign citizenship, as she does.

   "I really feel a little bit sorry for her," said foreign affairs
   ministry trainee Khin Thidar Zin after she watched Tuesday's
   parliamentary voting from the upper observation deck. "But I hope [Htin
   Kyaw] will be a kind president for the citizens of Myanmar."

   Aung San Suu Kyi - who has declared she will retain ultimate power -
   and her handpicked president will not have totally free hands to run
   Myanmar, as the military automatically retains a quarter of the
   parliamentary seats and it will control several key ministries.

   The army's candidate for president, General Myint Swe, who is the
   Yangon regional chief minister, will almost certainly lose next week's
   parliamentary vote, but is guaranteed one of the two vice presidential
   posts.

   ''Lawmakers of the NLD, which swept last November's general election,
   are hopeful this is a win-win situation that will appease the generals
   who have kept a grip on power for more than half a century.

   "Even though we are not a democratic country we are moving very fast
   towards a country where democracy flowers," NLD lawmaker Zaw Thein told
   VOA.

   With just weeks to go now before the change of government the lawmakers
   of the USDP -- until recently dominant -- seem to be gracefully
   accepting their new minority status.

   "This is a choice of citizens. I have to accept the result of the vote
   of elected members of parliament who are representing citizens," USDP
   lawmaker Ko Ko Naing told VOA after Friday's lower house vote. "Based
   on what I've learned about Htin Kyaw's biography I believe he could be
   a qualified leader who can run the country well."

   ''

   A combined session of both parliamentary houses next Tuesday, including
   the military's appointed members who met on their own this week, is
   scheduled to select the president with the second and third place
   finishers becoming vice presidents.

   The NLD's Henry Van Thio is likely to capture more votes than the
   military's nominee for the first vice president spot.

   Aung San Suu Kyi told NLD lawmakers Monday evening she chose the
   Christian lawmaker, an ethnic Chin, for "national reconciliation."

   Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a Buddhist-dominated country of more
   than 55 million people has been afflicted with nearly constant civil
   war since the end of the British colonial period in 1948.

   Since a nominally civilian government was installed in 2011 there has
   been progress in brokering peace deals with various groups but low
   intensity conflicts continue between the Myanmar army and a number of
   armed groups.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/aung-san-suu-kyi-handpicked-nominee-s
   tep-closer-to-presidency/3231459.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/aung-san-suu-kyi-handpicked-nominee-step-closer-to-presidency/3231459.html