Myanmar names new president
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, February 04, 2011:
Myanmar's parliament named the premier of the outgoing military government as the country's new president Friday, handing a key junta member the top job in the post-election administration.
The appointment of Thein Sein, 65, was the latest step in Myanmar's self-declared transition to democracy following elections in November, but critics have slammed the process as a sham aimed at cementing military rule.
The military's delegates in parliament and their civilian allies hold an 80 percent majority in the new legislature, which handpicked the new president from a pool of three vice presidents named on Thursday.
Thein Sein is the most prominent of the three and was seen as a shoe-in for the head of government.
An upper house lawmaker, Khin Shwe, contacted inside the parliament said Thein Sein won 408 out of 659 votes.
The future role of junta chief Senior Gen.
Than Shwe, who has wielded absolute power since 1992, remains unclear.
But he is expected to remain a dominant force.
Under the 2008 constitution that came into force Monday with the opening of the Union Parliament, the president appoints the commander in chief, chief ministers of the regions and states and several Cabinet ministers.
The president has the authority to sever diplomatic relations with foreign countries with parliament's approval and grant pardons or amnesties with the recommendation of the National Defense and Security Council, which he is the head of.
Thein Sein is a former general who served as the junta's prime minister from October 2007 and now heads the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which won a huge majority in November's general elections that much of the international community dismissed as rigged in favor of the junta.