Win Myint ( ; born 8 November 1951) is a Burmese politician who served as the tenth president of Myanmar from 2018 to 2021. He was removed from office in the 2021 Burmese coup d'état. He was the

Speaker of the House of Representatives of Myanmar The Speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော် ဥက္ကဋ္ဌ) is the presiding officer or Speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw The Pyithu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်သူ့ လွှတ်တေ ...

from 2016 to 2018. He also served as a member of parliament in the House of Representatives (Pyithu Hluttaw) from 2012 to 2018. Win Myint was viewed as an important ally and placeholder for State Counsellor

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...

, who served as the actual head of government but was constitutionally barred from the presidency. Win Myint currently heads the

National Unity Government of Myanmar The National Unity Government of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar ( my, အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေး အစိုးရ; abbreviated NUG) is a Myanmar government in exile formed by the Committee Representing Pyida ...

and, as of 24 November 2022, is still listed as the President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in the United Nations list of Heads of State, Heads of Government, and Ministers for Foreign Affairs of all Member States.

Early life and education

Win Myint was born in Nyaung Chaung Village, Danubyu,

Ayeyarwady Region Ayeyarwady Region ( my, ဧရာဝတီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး , , ; formerly Ayeyarwady Division and Irrawaddy Division), is a region of Myanmar, occupying the delta region of the Ayeyarwady River (Irrawaddy River). It is b ...

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

to parents Tun Kyin and Daw Than. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other Astronomical object, astronomical objects, the features or rock (geology), rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology ...

from the Rangoon Arts and Science University. He is married to

Cho Cho Cho Cho ( my, ချိုချို) is the wife of Win Myint, the tenth President of Myanmar. She served as the First Lady of Myanmar from 2018 to 2021, when her husband was removed from office in a coup d'état. Biography Cho Cho was b ...

and the couple has one daughter, Phyu Phyu Thin, a senior advisor of

City Mart Holdings City Mart Holdings (CMHL, my, စီးတီးမတ် ဟိုးဒင်း) is one of Myanmar’s largest retail outlet, employing more than 8,000 employees. The City Mart Group started as a modern supermarket in 1996 in the north wing ...

Political career

1988 uprising and 1990 election

After graduating in geology from Rangoon Arts and Science University, Win Myint became a High Court senior lawyer in 1981 and become a lawyer of the Supreme Court of Myanmar. In 1985, he became a High Court advocate. He was jailed for his role in the

8888 Uprising The 8888 Uprising ( my, ၈၈၈၈ အရေးအခင်း), also known as the People Power UprisingYawnghwe (1995), pp. 170 and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma (present-day Myanmar) th ...

, and has been described by some who have met him as rather a closed book. Out of jail in time for the 1990 Myanmar general election, which the military later nullified, he ran successfully for

’s Danubyu Township, winning a majority of 20,388 (56% of the votes), but was never allowed to assume his seat.

2012 by-election and 2015 election

He resumed his political career in the 2012 Myanmar by-elections, winning a

Pyithu Hluttaw The Pyithu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်သူ့ လွှတ်တော်, ; House of Representatives) is the ''de jure'' lower house of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, the bicameral legislature of Myanmar (Burma). It consists of 440 members, of whic ...

, lower house seat in

Pathein Pathein (, ; mnw, ဖာသီ, ), formerly called Bassein, is the largest city and the capital of the Ayeyarwady Region, Myanmar (Burma). It is located 190 km (120 mi) west of Yangon within Pathein Township on the bank of the Pathe ...

constituency, and going on to become secretary of parliament’s rule of law committee. In the 2015 Myanmar general election, he was elected as

MP for

Tamwe Township Tamwe Township (also Tarmwe Township; my, တာမွေ မြို့နယ်, ) is located in east central Yangon, Myanmar. The township comprises 20 wards, and shares borders with Yankin Township in the north, Thingangyun Township and Min ...

. He served as the

from 2016 to 2018.

Presidency

Following the resignation of Htin Kyaw as President of Myanmar, Win Myint resigned as Speaker of the Pyithu Hluttaw on 21 March 2018, a move seen by many as a preparation by the

National League for Democracy The National League for Democracy ( my, အမျိုးသား ဒီမိုကရေစီ အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, ; abbr. NLD; Burmese abbr. ဒီချုပ်) is a liberal democratic political party in Myanmar (Burma). It ...

for Win Myint to be put forward as a candidate for the presidency. He was succeeded by his deputy T Khun Myat. The Pyithu Hluttaw confirmed the election of Win Myint as the House of Representatives' nominee for vice president on 23 March 2018, paving the way for Win Myint to enter the election process for the next President of Myanmar. He defeated Union Solidarity and Development Party's candidate Thaung Aye with 273 votes to the latter's 27. Win Myint was elected as the 10th President of Myanmar by the

Pyidaungsu Hluttaw The Pyidaungsu Hluttaw ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စု လွှတ်တော် lit. Assembly of the Union) is the ''de jure'' national-level bicameral legislature of Myanmar (officially known as the ''Republic of the Union of ...

(a combined meeting of the two houses of the national legislature) on 28 March 2018, with 403 out of 636 lawmakers voting for him. On 17 April 2018, Win Myint granted

amnesty Amnesty (from the Ancient Greek ἀμνηστία, ''amnestia'', "forgetfulness, passing over") is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power offici ...

to 8,500 prisoners, including 51 foreigners and 36 political prisoners. On 1 February 2021, Win Myint was detained by military along with fellow parliament members including the Democratic party leader, Aung Sun Suu Kyi in Naypyidaw city. His presidency was removed by military dictator lead,

Min Aung Hlaing Min Aung Hlaing ( my, မင်းအောင်လှိုင် abbreviated: MAL ; born 3 July 1956) also known as Alaungsithu is a Burmese politician and army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Co ...

and replaced with vice-president, Myint Swe. Later on 4 February 2021, Win Myint was charged two-weeks custody for violating rules banning gatherings during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Trial hearings commenced on 16 February. On 11 October, a Naypyidaw judge formally indicted Win Myint under Section 25 of the Disaster Management Law, which carries a maximum three-year prison sentence. During Win Myint's testimony on 12 October, he revealed that on 1 February in the lead-up to the coup, two senior military generals had attempted to force him to resign, under the guise of "ill health." On 6 December 2021, Win Myint and Suu Kyi were both sentenced to 4 years in jail.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Members of Pyithu Hluttaw Speakers of the House of Representatives of Myanmar National League for Democracy politicians Prisoners and detainees of Myanmar 1951 births Living people Leaders ousted by a coup People from Ayeyarwady Region University of Yangon alumni Presidents of Myanmar