President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် သမ္မတ |
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Nominator | Assembly of the Union |
Appointer | Presidential Electoral College |
Term length | Five years, renewable once |
Constituting instrument | Constitution of Myanmar |
Inaugural holder | Sao Shwe Thaik |
Formation | 4 January 1948 |
Website | www |
The President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar is the head of state and head of government of Myanmar and leads the executive branch of the Burmese government, and heads the Cabinet of Myanmar.
The president is elected by members of parliament, not by the general population. The Presidential Electoral College, a three committee body, elects the president. Each of the three committees, made up of Amyotha Hluttaw, Pyithu Hluttaw members of parliament, or military-appointed lawmakers, nominates a candidate for presidency. The candidate with the highest number of votes from the Electoral College is elected president, while the two other candidates become vice-presidents.
The incumbent president is Htin Kyaw, who has held the post since 30 March 2016. While he is the de jure head of state and the government, the de facto head of government and the dominant state figure is the State Counsellor of Myanmar and leader of the ruling National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi.
According to the Constitution of Myanmar, the President:
Moreover, upon taking oath in office, the President is constitutionally forbidden from taking part in any political party activities (Chapter III, 64).
The President is not directly elected by Burmese voters; instead, he is indirectly elected by the Presidential Electoral College (သမ္မတရွေးချယ်တင်မြှောက်ရေးအဖွဲ့), an electoral body made of three separate committees. One committee is composed of MPs who represent the proportions of MPs elected from each Region or State; another is composed of MPs who represent the proportions of MPs elected from each township population; the third is of military-appointed MPs personally nominated by the Defence Services' Commander-in-Chief.