Myanmar new parliament elects speaker of House of Representatives

In November 2015, the first “openly-contested” elections held in the country since 1990 were swept by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy (NLD) as the party came away with more than 80 percent of the contested seats.

U Mann Win Khaing Than from the National League for Democracy (NLD), who is a retired legal officer, was elected to the upper house from Kayin state constituency, while U Aye Tha Aung from the Arakan National Party is a Rakhine ethnic parliament representative.

Aung San Suu Kyi tried Wednesday, February 3, to calm nerves over Myanmar’s tense political transition, with her choice of proxy presidential candidate shrouded in mystery days after her party took up its parliamentary majority.

But the junta-drafted constitution means the party will have to share power with the army that for years suppressed, often brutally, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and her allies.

The NLD had of course won an election previously as well.

The election took place at the first session of the parliament that began a new five-year term from 2016.

In 2007, he set up the “Group of Friends of the Secretary-General on Myanmar”, a consultative forum of 14 countries to assist him in his efforts to spur change in the South-East Asian nation.

Many legislators expressed hope that it was the beginning of a new, brighter era following decades of military oppression, civil war and pervasive poverty.

Local reporters said the training event appeared to be part of the process of choosing chief ministers for the 14 states and regions.

He will step down in late March or early April when an NLD president takes over.

Suu Kyi has said she will be “above the president”, and in complete control of the government, but the NLD has not explained how she will do this.

Under the constitution, army-appointed representatives hold 25 percent of the seats in parliament.

Myanmar’s bicameral Parliament sessions are presided over by the Union Parliament Speaker, a position that rotates between the speakers of the two chambers. Thein Sein has led the opening up of the long-isolated country, spurring global investment with sweeping political reforms.

But NLD’s long years of struggle and wariness do not seem to dampen the optimism of some party activists who experienced the excesses of military crackdown on then political opposition.

The meetings appeared to be efforts to formulate a future working relationship with the military that will require of Suu Kyi an ingenious tightrope act: forging ahead with her democratization agenda while not overly infringing on the military’s power and pride lest this ignites a backlash and plunge the country into its militaristic past. The junta never recognised the result of that vote.

“We are encouraged by the commitment of Burma’s political leaders to work together in the spirit of national unity and reform and are hopeful that this will continue throughout the transition period and beyond”, spokesman John Kirby said. This is an exciting moment for the people of Myanmar who have strug-gled for decades to end the military rule. Win Myint, a NLD MP close to Suu Kyi, was made Lower House Speaker and T. Khun Myat, a Union Solidarity and Development (USDP) MP and a Kachin who ran a pro-government militia, was made his deputy.