AFP, Yangon :
Members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s victorious pro-democracy party will take their seats in parliament on February 1, Myanmar’s speaker said today, beginning a new era for a nation under army rule for decades.
Suu Kyi led her National League for Democracy to a big majority in landmark elections in November, crowning the struggle against almost half a century of military rule.
In a statement parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann announced that “all MPs (are) to start the new parliament at 10am on Monday February 1, 2016”.
But the new government will take office slowly under the complex political system — it can only be formed after current President Thein Sein steps down on March 31.
The NLD-dominated legislature replaces the incumbent one of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, a quasi-civilian junta spin-off that has ruled the country since the end of outright military rule in 2011.
First on the lawmakers’ to-do list is choosing the next president. Parliament will select the president from three candidates put forward by the upper and lower houses and the military — which holds a quarter of the legislature’s seat under the constitution.
Members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s victorious pro-democracy party will take their seats in parliament on February 1, Myanmar’s speaker said today, beginning a new era for a nation under army rule for decades.
Suu Kyi led her National League for Democracy to a big majority in landmark elections in November, crowning the struggle against almost half a century of military rule.
In a statement parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann announced that “all MPs (are) to start the new parliament at 10am on Monday February 1, 2016”.
But the new government will take office slowly under the complex political system — it can only be formed after current President Thein Sein steps down on March 31.
The NLD-dominated legislature replaces the incumbent one of the Union Solidarity and Development Party, a quasi-civilian junta spin-off that has ruled the country since the end of outright military rule in 2011.
First on the lawmakers’ to-do list is choosing the next president. Parliament will select the president from three candidates put forward by the upper and lower houses and the military — which holds a quarter of the legislature’s seat under the constitution.
