New Delhi: Myanmar President Htin Kyaw resigned on Wednesday. A statement posted on the President’s official Facebook page read that the President “in order to take rest from the current duties and responsibilities” has decided to step down and a new leader will be elected “within seven working days.” The notice said a replacement would be in place within seven working days. Parliament is in session this week, and a new president could be voted into place by the end of the week.
Kyaw, 71, who has been in office for two years, is the right-hand man of Myanmar Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. He was picked to be President after the country’s constitution barred Suu Kyi from holding the post.
According to Frontier Myanmar, rumors of Htin Kyaw’s impending resignation have been widespread for almost a year but government and National League for Democracy party officials have consistently denied them.
The government has, however, confirmed that Htin Kyaw sought medical treatment abroad on several occasions, most recently in January when he travelled to Singapore.
Under the constitution, Vice President U Myint Swe will serve as acting president until the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, Myanmar’s national parliament, selects a replacement.
Kyaw was the first elected president to hold the office with no ties to the military since the 1962 coup d’état. The second son of renowned Burmese scholar Min Thu Wun, Htin Kyaw had held various positions in the education, planning and treasury ministries in prior governments. His father was also an elected NLD Member of Parliament in 1990 elections from Kamayut Township, Yangon.
Kyaw himself is a writer and has written under the pen name Dala Ban (named by his father after an ethnic Mon warrior of Myanmar’s past), U Htin Kyaw’s most famous book in Burmese is about the life of his father and titled: The Father’s Life: Glimpses of my Father (A Ba Bawa; A Ba Ah Kyaung; Te Se, Te Saung).