Junta deputy leader Vice Senior General Soe Win announced on 24 February that Myanmar will appoint a new president and form a formal government in early April, following military-led general elections that were widely condemned by the international community as a sham.

Speaking to military personnel and their families at bases in Nawngwoe, Kenghkam, and Mongpying in Shan State, Soe Win confirmed that state responsibilities would be transferred to the newly formed administration according to the schedule.

This follows the official convening of the third Pyithu Hluttaw and Amyotha Hluttaw, slated for 16 and 18 March respectively, where the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is set to dominate after winning the majority of parliamentary seats.

“We will elect a president in early April, form a new government, and transfer state responsibilities accordingly,” the deputy junta chief said.

In the junta’s election which excluded 67 of the country’s 330 townships and more than 4,000 wards and village tracts, the military-backed USDP won the largest number of seats.

Under the 2008 Constitution still enforced by the junta, the Presidential Electoral Body must be formed from three groups of Pyidaungsu Hluttaw representatives: the Pyithu Hluttaw , the Amyotha Hluttaw, and the military representatives.

Each group must nominate one vice president, and the president will be chosen from among those three nominees.

There is also speculation that junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, currently described as the acting president, may formally assume the presidency.

President Win Myint and State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi have now spent more than five years in imprisonment following the military’s seizure of power on 1 February 2021, citing voter-list irregularities.