Aung San Suu Kyi Will Not Become Myanmar’s Next President

The party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi officially confirmed Thursday that she will not become Myanmar’s next president.

FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2016 file photo, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, center, walks along with other lawmakers of her National League for Democracy party as they leave after a regular session of the lower house of parliament in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Nobel laureate Suu Kyi’s decades-long battle to bring democracy to Myanmar is likely to come to fruition on Thursday, March 10 with a whimper, not a bang. Despite leading her NLDP to a smashing election victory, Suu Kyi seems certain not to become her country's leader. Suu Kyi, 70, cannot be president because the constitution bars anyone with a foreign spouse or children from holding the executive office. Suu Kyi's two sons are British, as was her late husband. AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar— The party of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi officially confirmed Thursday that she will not become Myanmar’s next president.

Unofficially, she has vowed to be the de-facto leader by calling the shots from behind the scenes, and party members said Thursday that’s how things will work in Myanmar’s first democratically elected government in more than a half century.

The party nominated two Suu Kyi loyalists for the post including the front runner Htin Kyaw (pronounced Tin CH-yaw), a 70-year-old Oxford graduate. The nomination will be followed by a vote among legislators later this month before the new president is installed April 1.

“I’m very happy and very pleased and I believe he (Htin Kyaw) will work together with Aung San Suu Kyi for the benefit of the people,” said Khin Su Su Kyi, an NLD lawmaker.

For the past several weeks Suu Kyi is believed to have held closed-door talks with the powerful military generals to suspend a constitutional clause that bars her from presidency.

The outcome of the negotiations was not known until Thursday when the names of the loyalists were announced, signaling the end, at least for now, of Suu Kyi’s longtime ambition to be Myanmar’s leader.

Suu Kyi did not attend Thursday’s high-profile nomination session but posted a letter on Facebook to her legions of supporters. She called it a “first step toward realizing the expectations and desires of the people who overwhelmingly supported the National League for Democracy in the elections.”

Supporters of Myanmar nationalist groups raise their hands in support of preserving a constitutional clause barring Aung San Suu Kyi, the popular leader of the country's new ruling party, from becoming head of state, in Yangon, Bhurma, on Feb. 28, 2016. AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe