00:00Myanmar Junta chief Min Ong Laing was elected president on Friday after breezing through
00:06a vote by the pro-military parliament.
00:08That formalized his grip on political power five years after he ousted Myanmar's elected
00:13government in a coup and kept a carefully choreographed journey from top general to
00:18civilian president.
00:19It wasn't clear if Min Ong Laing attended the vote, and he wasn't seen during a state
00:24broadcast of the proceedings.
00:25The 69-year-old general toppled the administration of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi
00:31in 2021 and put her under arrest.
00:35That sparked widespread protests that morphed into nationwide armed resistance against the
00:40junta.
00:41The civil war that has wrecked Myanmar and its economy for much of the last five years is
00:46still raging.
00:47Human rights groups and United Nations experts have accused the military under Min Ong Laing's
00:52command of atrocities against the civilian population, which the junta has denied.
00:57His election follows a lopsided vote in December and January that an army-backed party won by
01:03a landslide.
01:04Critics and Western governments called that election a sham to perpetuate military rule behind
01:09a veneer of democracy.
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