Myanmar parliament to elect presidential candidates

YANGON -- The Myanmar parliament is to elect presidential candidates later on Friday to compete for the presidency vacancy left by U Htin Kyaw, who announced resignation on Wednesday for health reasons.

According to parliament sources, the presidential electoral college of the House of Representatives will elect a vice president as a candidate to compete with other two existing vice presidents -- U Myint Swe and U Henry Van Thio for presidential run at the parliament.

The presidency vacancy shall be filled within seven days after the president announces resignation, according to the constitution.

Meanwhile, a day following the resignation of U Win Myint as Speaker of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, U T Khun Myat, his deputy, was elected as new speaker of the House.

The current parliament and government began its term of five years from February and April 2016 respectively under the leadership of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) which won the absolute majority of the parliamentary seats in the Nov. 8 general election in 2015.