Myanmar's military-dominated parliament elected Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing as president on Friday, formally transitioning the junta leader to a civilian head of state five years after he led a coup against the elected government.
The 69-year-old won a lopsided victory following a restricted, multi-phase election process that international observers and opposition groups have heavily criticized.
During a session in the capital of Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Min Aung Hlaing secured 429 of the 584 votes cast by the combined upper and lower houses. Retired general Nyo Saw received 126 votes, while Nan Ni Ni Aye of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party secured 29 votes. Under the military-drafted constitution, both runners-up automatically became vice presidents, making Nan Ni Ni Aye the first woman to hold the position.
To comply with a constitutional mandate prohibiting the president from simultaneously holding the top military post, Min Aung Hlaing relinquished his role as commander-in-chief on Monday. He transferred the military command to Gen. Ye Win Oo, a close aide and former intelligence chief.
Citing security concerns amid the ongoing civil war, authorities limited the December and January elections to 263 of the country's 330 townships, excluding millions of displaced citizens and ethnic minorities. Major opposition factions, including the formerly ruling National League for Democracy, were dissolved or barred from competing. Former civilian leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, 80, remains imprisoned on a 27-year sentence.
Human rights organizations swiftly condemned the transition. Amnesty International researcher Joe Freeman said, “If Min Aung Hlaing thinks that an official civilian title will shield him from prosecution for the many grave violations of international law that he is accused of overseeing as head of the military, that is not how international justice works.”
Opposition groups also rejected the vote's legitimacy. National Unity Government (NUG) spokesperson Nay Phone Latt stated on an interview that the "Myanmar people do not accept it. The revolution will continue with great momentum," he told Associated Press, while allied ethnic minority armies joined the NUG to form the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union, whose stated objective is to "completely dismantle all forms of dictatorship."