Nominees to be named March 17

Myanmar will not discover who its new president will be until at least mid-March, an official said yesterday, as speculation swirls over who will serve as proxy for democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The cut off point for presidential candidate proposals will be March 17, Win Khaing Than, the speaker of Myanmar's combined houses of parliament told lawmakers yesterday.

That means voters will have waited more than four months to discover who the new president will be after they delivered a thumping victory for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in landmark November polls.

Suu Kyi is currently barred from top political office by a junta-era constitution.

The announcement prolongs anxiety over who will take over the presidency from outgoing general-turned-reformer Thein Sein at the end of March.

"(The military) will never change their position," information minister Ye Htut told AFP.

Three presidential candidates will be nominated, one by each of the lower and upper chambers and one from the army, which retains 25 percent of parliament's seats. The new president will then be chosen by a vote of the combined houses, which are dominated by an overall NLD majority.