His transition from top general to civilian president follows a recent lopsided election won overwhelmingly by an army-backed party
2-MIN READ2-MIN ListenReutersPublished: 2:00pm, 3 Apr 2026Updated: 2:01pm, 3 Apr 2026Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing won a parliamentary vote on Friday to become the country’s president, formalising his grip on political power in the war-torn nation five years after he ousted an elected government.His transition from top general to civilian president follows a recent lopsided election won overwhelmingly by an army-backed party, which critics and Western governments derided as a sham to perpetuate military rule behind a veneer of democracy.The 69-year-old general orchestrated the 2021 coup that forced out the government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and placed her under arrest, sparking widespread protests that morphed into nationwide armed resistance against the junta.AdvertisementIn a live broadcast of the vote count in a parliament dominated by the election-winning Union Solidarity and Development Party and the military’s quota of appointed armed forces legislators, former commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing comfortably passed the threshold required to win the presidential vote.
Min Aung Hlaing’s ascent to the presidency – a position that analysts say he has long sought – followed a major reshuffle in the leadership of Myanmar’s armed forces, which he had led since 2011.
On Monday, as he was nominated in parliament as a presidential candidate, Min Aung Hlaing anointed Ye Win Oo, a former intelligence chief seen as fiercely loyal to the general, as his successor to lead the military.
