2nd LD Writethru: Presidential election process kicks off in Myanmar

The presidential election process kicked off in Myanmar's parliament Thursday as three parliamentary groups of presidential electoral college submit their candidates.

The three groups represent the House of Representatives (Lower House), House of Nationalities (Upper House) and non-elected military-assigned representatives.

A candidate nomination process is underway in the two houses, while nomination from the military will take place at the army headquarters separately.

In the group of presidential electoral college of the Lower House, U Htin Kyaw was nominated by the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi, while Dr. Sai Mauk Kham was nominated by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

In the group of presidential electoral college of the Upper House, U Henry Van Htee Yu of Chin state constituency-3 was nominated by the NLD, while U Khin Aung Myint, former speaker of the House of Nationalities, was nominated by the USDP.

U Htin Kyaw, a non-elected parliament representative,

was born in Kunchangon town as son of noted writer Min Thu Wun, who was elected as a parliament representative of the NLD in the 1990 general election.

A classmate with Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon Methodist High School, U Htin Kyaw attended the Yangon University of Economics in 1962 and graduated with a degree of master of Economics.

As the first scholarship winning student of the Yangon Computer Department, he was sent for further study to Britain.

He resigned as a government employee in 1992 and joined the NLD, continuing writing under his father's pen name.

As the most trusted person by Aung San Suu Kyi, U Htin Kyaw was nominated by the NLD as a candidate to run for the vice president.

Dr. Sai Mauk Kham, currently the vice president, was re-elected as a representative of the USDP to the House of Representative from Lashio constituency in the Nov. 8 general election 2015.

U Henry Van Htee Yu, a Chin national and a Christian, holds a diploma in law.

U Khin Aung Myint, the previous speaker of the House of Nationalities, served as the culture minister.

The parliament set three groups representing the two Houses and military representatives to nominate one candidate in the final for vice president and through voting, the one, who wins the most number of votes, will take the presidency, while the remaining two be vice presidents.

Nominees for vice presidents by the three groups of presidential electoral college are to undergo scrutiny if they are qualified for the posts and the approval of the candidates will be announced and further submitted to the Union Parliament, comprising two Houses, for the presidential election.

Voting for the presidency will be conducted on March 17 or March 18 when the Union Parliament reconvenes. Enditem