Win Myint, 66 and the former lower house speaker, took his oath of office during a joint session of Parliament, pledging loyalty “to the people and the republic of the Union of Myanmar.” First vice president Myint Swe, a military nominee and second vice president Henry Van Tio, an upper house parliament nominee, took oaths alongside him.
Suu Kyi and the powerful army chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing watched the swearing-in.
For many years a political prisoner under the military that then ruled Myanmar, Suu Kyi cannot become president because the junta-drafted 2008 constitution bars those with foreign family, which directly aimed to bar Suu Kyi from becoming head of state. Her two sons are British.
Myanmar’s military ruled with an iron fist before handing power to a civilian government led by Suu Kyi in 2016. The military still holds considerable power, with control of national security and other government functions and a quarter of the seats in Parliament.
In his inaugural speech, Win Myint vowed to work on amending the constitution.
Myanmar’s civilian government has come under international pressure for its handling of a crisis in northern Rakhine state, where security forces have been accused of ethnic cleansing and gross human rights violations that have caused hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to neighboring Bangladesh.
