Win Myint, Speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives), was voted a vice-president by the group of elected Pyithu Hluttaw parliamentarians of the Presidential Electoral College on March 23. The election follows his departure from that post on the same day the former president Htin Kyaw resigned with immediate effect on March 21, an apparent step taken by the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party to put Win Myint as a presidential nominee.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s confidant and one of a five-member secretarial team of the Central Executive Committee of the NLD, Win Myint defeated Thaung Aye from the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) with 273 votes to the latter’s 27 votes in the meeting of the elected Pyithu Hluttaw representatives convened on that day for selection of a vice-president as a candidate to the presidency.
Htin Kyaw was handpicked for the presidency by Aung San Suu Kyi in her seek to practice de facto power though him by creating a special post titled State Counsellor as a constitutional barrier blocks her from the top office. Since he came to the presidency through presidential nomination of the Pyithu Hluttaw, a vice-president was elected by the Pyithu Hluttaw to be a nomination for Htin Kyaw’s replacement in accordance with the constitution.
Myanmar’s presidential election comes through parliamentary voting. The Presidential Electoral College is formed with three groups of the lawmakers of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (Assembly of the Union), the national-level bicameral legislature of the country. They are the group formed with elected Pyithu Hluttaw (lower House) representatives, the group formed with elected Amyotha Hluttaw (upper House) representatives and the group formed with the Defence Services (Armed Forces of Myanmar) personnel representatives nominated by the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services for the two Houses.
Each group elects a vice-president from among the parliament members or from among persons who are not parliamentarians. Then the Presidential Electoral College comprising all the parliamentarians select by votes one of the three vice-presidents who are presidential candidates, as the president. The presidential nominee collecting highest votes becomes president, and the other two become vice-president (1) and (2) according to the number of their votes.
In the March 23 meeting of the elected Pyithu Hluttaw representatives, Win Myint was selected as a vice-president in a vote by secret ballot of 304 lower House lawmakers, of which four votes were rejected. The number of the elected Pyithu Hluttaw representatives account for 323, and there were just 304 attendees at the second session of the meeting after the convention was attended by 307 participants during its first session.
Win Myint, named by Dr May Win Myint representing the NLD that shares 253 seats at the lower House, gained 273 votes, a sign he was supported by ethnic minority parties as well. Thaung Aye, nominated by fellow USDP lawmaker Hla Htay Win, won only 27 votes to suffer a second blow just a day after he lost to T Khun Myat for the post of Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker left by the departure of Win Myint. The nomination of Thaung Aye by fellow USDP legislator Thein Tun representing Kyaunggon Township constituency for the Lower House Speaker post collected 141 votes, just to be defeated to 280 votes secured by T Khun Myat, an individual representative nominated by NLD lawmaker Khin San Hlaing from Palae Township constituency.
The process of electing a vice-president for a presidential nomination was instantly launched following the resignation of Htin Kyaw as the constitution requires the Acting President to promptly intimate the Patron of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw to fill the vacancy within seven days if the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw is in session when the office of the President becomes vacant. When the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw is not in session, the Patron of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw would summon the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw within 21 days from the day of receipt of the intimation from the Acting President and proceed with the election of a vice-president by the concerned group of Hluttaw representatives in accord with the prescribed procedure.
Upon Htin Kyaw’s departure, Myint Swe who was nominated as a vicepresident by the group of militaryappointed Defence Services personnel representatives of the Presidential Electoral College in this term of the parliament, became Acting President as he won the second highest votes in the previous presidential poll.
Win Myint (64) also succeed a parliamentary seat in 1990 elections contested for Danubyu Township in Ayeyarwady Division. And he managed a second election victory in 2012 by-elections representing Pathein constituency for a seat in the Pyithu Hluttaw, subsequently becoming secretary of parliamentary Rule of Law Committee. In 2015 general elections, he successfully ran for Pyithu Hluttaw seat from Tamwe Township in Yangon Region, and was voted the speaker of the House. During the previous term of Myanmar parliament, the 1st Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, he served as the secretary of the Pyithu Hluttaw Committee on Rule of Law and Tranquility led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
“As the constitution sets forth that the President takes precedence over all other persons throughout the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, the new president should be entitled to full presidential mandate. And I hope U Win Myint shall rightly stand at people’s side and accomplish national interest,’’ said parliamentarian Thaung Aye.
Defeating Thaung Aye in the vote to replace the available Lower House Speaker seat, T Khun Myat was a former executive member of the largest opposition USDP; thus the selection of him by the NLD sparked a roar. Prior to the selection, T Khun Myat had served as the Deputy Speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw. He was equipped with that position since the formation of the NLDled government following its victory in November 2015 general elections. Although voted to the parliament representing the USDP, T Khun Myat renounced his membership of the party in 2017.
An ethnic Kachin lawmaker elected from Kutkai constituency, T Khun Myat has been linked with drug trades and money laundering during his time as the leader of a People’s Militia Force in Kutkai in Shan state, an allegation he always denied. He was also a member of the 1st Pyidaungsu Hluttaw after winning a seat representing the USDP in 2010 general elections, the first election for Myanmar following decades of military rule. During the 1st Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, he took the chair of the Committee on Bills in the Pyithu Hluttaw. Once served as the legal director at the Office of the Attorney-General, T Khun Myat was part of the commission assigned with drafting Myanmar’s current constitution in 2007 as well as the commission running the constitutional referendum in 2008. T Khun Myat was sworn in as Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker on March 22, 2018 at the age of 68.
Veteran NLD member Tun Tun Hein, who won in 1990 and 2015 general elections representing Naungcho Township in Shan state, was chosen as the Lower House’s Deputy Speaker to fill T Khun Myat’s vacancy. He beat Dr Maung Thin of the USDP with 270 votes to the latter’s 143 votes in election to the post. Tun Tun Hein (69), a member of the Central Executive Committee of the NLD, had been the Chair of the Committee on Bills in Pyithu Hluttaw prior to that.