NAYPYITAW: Myanmar democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi will steer the incoming government of her National League for Democracy (NLD), staying on as party head, and is unlikely to take a formal position in the government, the party said on Sunday.

Myanmar’s parliament last week elected Htin Kyaw, a close friend and confidant of the Nobel peace prize laureate, as president, making him the first head of state since the 1960s who does not hail from a military background.

Suu Kyi led the NLD to a historic landslide election win in November, but a constitution drafted by the former junta bars her from the top office because her two children and her late husband do not have Myanmar citizenship.

Suu Kyi has vowed to defy the constitution described by senior NLD members as “ridiculous”, pledging to run the country from “above the president”.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2016