Myanmar’s NLD names Suu Kyi confidant as presidential candidate

Members of parliament arrive to attend a parliament meeting in Naypyitaw March 10, 2016. Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has proposed a close friend of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as its presidential candidate, ending a four-month wait for the identity of the president expected to rule in her name. The NLD nominated Htin Kyaw, who joined the party just two months ago, as its lower house candidate. Thanks to the party’s crushing parliamentary majority, that makes him near-certain to become titular head of the country’s first democratically elected government since the army seized power in 1962. The wildly popular Suu Kyi and the NLD won a landslide electoral victory in November, but she is barred from holding the presidency herself under a junta-drafted 2008 constitution because her children are not Myanmar citizens. Suu Kyi has said that she would run the country regardless through a proxy. Until Thursday, she and the NLD leadership had kept the identity of their nominee a closely guarded secret even from rank-and-file MPs. Htin Kyaw runs a charity founded by Suu Kyi and has been close to her since the mid-1990s. He is not a lawmaker. NLD central executive committee member Han Tha Myint confirmed to Reuters on Thursday that Htin Kyaw was the party’s preferred presidential candidate. “I’m very happy,” said lower house NLD lawmaker Myint Myint Soe. “I believe our leader Aung San Suu Kyi chose the right people for these positions. I know U Htin…