The selection of one of Aung San Suu Kyi’s most trusted allies as her party’s choice for Myanmar’s president signals the importance she is placing on absolute loyalty in her top ranks as negotiations with the still-powerful military have reached a stalemate.
On Thursday, the National League for Democracy nominated Htin Kyaw, a writer and confidant of Ms. Suu Kyi, as the candidate who will almost certainly be confirmed head of state in a vote next week by parliament. The Nobel laureate is barred from holding the position herself, but has vowed to control the president from behind the scenes.
Mr. Htin Kyaw, son of a poet and son-in-law of an NLD co-founder, has spent decades at Ms. Suu Kyi’s side. When she was under house arrest at her lakeside home following elections in 1990 that the military scrapped when she won in a landslide, Mr. Htin Kyaw acted as interlocutor with the outside world, providing her with food, medicines and other necessities, according to senior party members. (Courtesy of WSJ)
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