The National League for Democracy’s (NLD’s) Dr Linn Htut, who represents Lashio in the Shan State Hluttaw (parliament), is favourite to become the Shan State Chief Minister, according to the NLD and Shan political commentators.

A senior NLD official said: “It will almost certainly be Dr Linn Htut [who becomes chief minister]. He was part of the meeting where Aunty Suu [Daw Aung San Suu Kyi] met with the MPs designated for the positions of state and regional chief ministerial positions.”

Dr Lin Htut is an ethnic Burmese, but his wife is an ethnic Shan.

Some political observers believed that the NLD would offer a member of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) the job of Chief minister due to the NLD’s policy of national reconciliation and because the SNLD is an allied partner of the NLD.

The SNLD was also the party that won the second highest number of seats in the Shan State Hluttaw after the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

But a Shan political observer, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the SNLD only had a few members of parliament (MPs) who met the qualification criteria for the job of Shan State Chief Minister because the party’s top leaders had not run in the election.

The NLD has officially announced that it will appoint NLD members to all the state and regional chief minister positions.

In the November 2015 elections the USDP won 33 seats in the Shan State Hluttaw, more than any other party. The SNLD came second winning 25 seats and the NLD came third winning 23 seats out of the103 seats that were contested.

The military were automatically also given 34 seats that were not contested. The most senior military appointee in the Shan State Hluttaw is Lieutenant-General (retired) Aung Than Htut.

BY Shan Herald Agency for News (SHAN)