NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar lawmakers will elect a new president on Friday, the parliamentary speaker said, with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing one of three candidates for the post.

The former commander-in-chief has led Myanmar since 2021, when he ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and triggered a civil war.

He was one of three vice presidents elected by lawmakers on Tuesday, receiving 247 of 260 votes in the lower house.

"...the three vice presidents (members of parliament) have to vote to ... elect the one vice president they prefer as the President," parliamentary speaker Aung Lin Dwe said Thursday, adding the vote will be held at 10:00 a.m on Friday.

The other two vice presidents are Nan Ni Ni Aye, a regional MP from Karen state with the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), and current Prime Minister Nyo Saw.

Democracy watchdogs have long warned that the new government will be a proxy of the military, which has ruled Myanmar for the vast majority of its post-independence history.

The generals loosened their grip for a decade-long democratic experiment beginning in 2011, allowing Aung San Suu Kyi to ascend as civilian leader and steer a period of reform as the nation opened up.

But after Aung San Suu Kyi trounced the USDP in a landslide in the 2020 elections, Min Aung Hlaing seized power back.

After five years of hardline rule, the top general oversaw heavily restricted elections that returned a walkover win for pro-military parties in January.

Now the USDP, led and staffed by many retired officers, is entrenched in parliament after winning 80% of the elected seats, and the new government is expected to march in lockstep with the top brass.

Min Aung Hlaing is expected to manage a carefully orchestrated transition to the presidency after handing over the reins of the military to loyalist Ye Win Oo on Monday.

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Myanmar parliament to elect new president Friday: Speaker