Myanmar’s reformist President Thein Sein was reappointed yesterday as head of the ruling party at a key meeting aimed at reviving its flagging political fortunes against a resurgent opposition.
Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann, a fellow reformer who had been tipped to replace Thein Sein, was picked as acting chairman to handle the day-to-day business in a party vote, members said.
Thein Sein relinquished an active role within his Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) to become president of the country last year at the end of nearly half a century of outright military rule.
Analysts say Thein Sein has been locked in a power struggle with Shwe Mann, who was more senior under the previous military regime and is widely considered to harbor ambitions of taking over the presidency.
Many party members had said before the vote they expected Shwe Mann to be named USDP chairman, as the party looks towards a 2015 election seen as a major test of the regime’s democratic credentials.
Members of parliament said the unexpected outcome aimed to prevent friction between the government and the ruling party.
“To have good relations between the executive and the party we have to keep the positions of the ministers and the president the same” within the USDP, said a party member who did not want to be named. “If we change too much, relations between the government and the party will be difficult.”
The USDP is still smarting from a heavy defeat in April by-elections at the hands of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party, which won 43 of the 44 seats it contested.
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