The military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) Spokesperson Hla Thein told pro-regime media in Naypyidaw on Sunday that regime leader Min Aung Hlaing is now an official member of the USDP following its fourth party congress Sept. 19-20.
The official USDP title for Min Aung Hlaing wasn’t disclosed. Hla Thein dismissed rumours about tension between the regime leader and USDP Chairperson Khin Yi. Min Aung Hlaing was rumored to have attempted to replace Khin Yi as USDP chairperson.
The USDP elected 46 central executive committee members and Khin Yi was re-elected USDP chair during the two-day convention. Pro-regime media was barred from covering the two-day event—the first USDP congress since 2011 where the party’s chair has remained unchanged.
Under the 2008 Constitution, Min Aung Hlaing was barred from officially joining a political party while serving as commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s military—a position he was appointed to by former Senior General Than Shwe in 2011 and relinquished 15 years later, on March 30.
As Senior General, Min Aung Hlaing had to retire to pave the way for him to become Myanmar’s president. He was inaugurated by a military-backed parliament on April 10 following the regime’s 2025-26 elections, which led to an overwhelming victory for his USDP without any opposition parties on the ballot.
Min Aung Hlaing ousted the National League for Democracy (NLD) administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021. The NLD party had won back-to-back landslide victories in the 2015 and 2020 elections—both considered “free and fair” by international observers.
A source close to the USDP told DVB on the condition of anonymity that Than Shwe, who ruled Myanmar with an iron fist from 1992-2011, helped Khin Yi maintain his position as USDP chair.
A similar rift between the military-backed president and the USDP chairperson occurred in August 2015, when then-President Thein Sein forced former party chair Shwe Mann out of power.
Shwe Mann was sacked from the USDP together with 17 other senior members in April 2016. He later founded the Union Betterment Party, which was short-lived from 2019-22, and disbanded after the 2021 coup.
Khin Yi won a seat in the Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament for Zeyathiri Township in Naypyidaw during the regime’s 2025-26 elections which ended on Jan. 25. He was then named lower house speaker.
The retired brigadier general and former police chief, Khin Yi was first appointed to the role of USDP chair on Oct. 4, 2022, replacing Than Htay. He served as the Minister of Immigration and Population during President Thein Sein’s USDP administration from 2011-2016. He became vice-chair 2 of the USDP before the 2020 elections, which they lost to the NLD.
Myanmar’s two largest democratic parties, the NLD and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), were disbanded by the regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) in 2023 for “failing to re-register” following the coup.
The USDP was established during a previous military regime called the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). It registered with the UEC on June 2, 2010.
The party claims to have over one million members nationwide. The UEC reports that there are 457,070 registered USDP members.
