Suu Kyi loyalist confirmed for Myanmar presidential race
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A longtime confidante of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been confirmed as one of the three final candidates to be Myanmar's next president.
Htin Kyaw was approved by a 274-29 vote in the lower house of parliament to be chosen a finalist for a presidential election. A vote is underway in the upper house to choose the second finalist.
A third candidate will be put forward by the military bloc, which has a constitutionally mandated 25 percent of reserved seats in parliament.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Legislators will hold another round of voting next week to choose one of them as president, which almost certainly will be 70-year-old Htin Kyaw. He will take office April 1 to head what will be Myanmar's first democratically elected government in more than a half century.