Suu Kyi loyalist confirmed for Myanmar presidential race

Published March 11, 2016

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.

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.

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