Myanmar, Naypyidaw: Tuesday, Myanmar’s lawmakers elected a Htin Kyaw, close aide and longtime friend of Aung San Suu Kyi to become the country’s first civilian president in decades, in a historic moment for the formerly junta-run nation. Kyaw, 69, won 360 of 652 votes cast by Myanmar’s two legislative chambers, paving the way for him to serve as a proxy for the Nobel laureate who is constitutionally barred from becoming president. MPs burst into applause when the results were announced after a lengthy counting procedure in the capital Naypyidaw.

Suu Kyi is barred from taking the top post under the country’s junta-era constitution because she married and had children with a foreigner. But she has pledged to pull the strings of power from “above” her appointee backed by a thumping mandate from her party’s landslide election win in November.