Sources close to the military told DVB that Min Aung Hlaing appointed Ye Win Oo, the Chief of the Myanmar Army, as the ninth commander-in-chief, and Kyaw Swar Lin, the Chief of the General Staff, as the next deputy commander-in-chief at a ceremony in Naypyidaw on Monday.
A military source told DVB on the condition of anonymity that soldiers are “unhappy” with Min Aung Hlaing’s selection of his loyalist Ye Win Oo as the next commander-in-chief of the Myanmar military. Some were hoping that Soe Win, the outgoing deputy commander-in-chief, would be selected as Min Aung Hlaing’s successor as the next commander-in-chief.
Soe Win, the current deputy regime leader under Min Aung Hlaing, told a ceremony for retired soldiers in Naypyidaw on March 26 that a change in military leadership was to be expected after Armed Forces Day on March 27. He reportedly instructed his subordinates to carry out their duties regardless of who was selected the next commander-in-chief.
Ye Win Oo, known as the “eyes and ears” of the regime, is also the chief of the Military Security Affairs Corps and the chief executive officer of the regime’s National Defence and Security Council (NDSC). He was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on Feb. 11, 2021.
Sources in Naypyidaw told DVB that Kyaw Swar Lin has “no battlefield experience” and has spent his career behind a desk at the Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services. He was appointed as the Chief of the General Staff in 2024.
The 69-year-old Min Aung Hlaing assumed his position as Myanmar’s eighth commander-in-chief in 2011 during then-President Thein Sein’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) administration.
Min Aung Hlaing ended Myanmar’s touted “transition to democracy” started by Thein Sein, who handed over power peacefully to the National League for Democracy (NLD) party led by Aung San Suu Kyi when it defeated the USDP in a landslide victory during elections in 2015.
The NLD won another resounding victory against the USDP in the 2020 elections, which were overturned by the military coup led by Min Aung Hlaing on Feb. 1, 2021.
Min Aung Hlaing was nominated as one of two vice-presidential candidates by the Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, during a parliamentary session on Monday.
The Amyotha Hulttaw, or upper house, selected two of its own vice-presidential candidates on March 30. Military lawmakers, which hold 25 per cent of all seats in parliament, will select one of its own vice-presidential nominees.
The lower house will make a final selection of one of its two nominees, and the upper house will do the same. Both houses and the military will make their final decision on who will be Myanmar’s three vice-presidents by March 31.
Myanmar’s next president will be selected out of the three vice-presidential nominees by all 586 lawmakers in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the country’s bicameral legislature, at a later date.
Min Aung Hlaing is widely expected to be selected Myanmar’s next president. Under the 2008 Constitution, no individual can hold both civilian and military leadership positions.
