Retired Myanmar general set for powerful role in new parliament, sources say

A retired general from an army-backed party that swept Myanmar’s military 2025-26 elections is set to take the powerful role of speaker of parliament, sources said, which could help the military cement control of government five years after a coup that ousted Myanmar’s elected National League for Democracy (NLD) party administration.

A regime that seized control of Myanmar during the 2021 coup will formally cede power after a new parliament convenes on March 16, with the top generals expected to loom large in politics after a resounding election win by the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which the military formed in 2010.

The NLD was disbanded by the military’s Union Election Commission in 2023. Its leaders, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, were arrested during the coup on Feb. 1, 2021. Both have been held in detention by the regime ever since.

Three USDP sources told Reuters that its Chairperson Khin Yi, a retired brigadier-general and former police chief, is tipped to take the pivotal post of Lower House Speaker.

In that role, he would oversee the election of a new president, the passage of laws and the approval of budgets and key state appointments. The USDP did not respond to requests for comment on Khin Yi’s future role.