His carefully choreographed journey from top general to civilian president follows a lopsided election in December and January that was won in a landslide by an army-backed party and derided by critics and Western governments as a sham to perpetuate military rule behind a veneer of democracy.
The 69-year-old general has had a torrid time in power since he toppled the administration of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021 and put her under arrest, sparking widespread protests that morphed into nationwide armed resistance against the junta.
On Friday, MPs from the dominant Union Solidarity and Development Party and the military's quota of appointed armed forces legislators coalesced to back Min Aung Hlaing, with the former commander-in-chief winning the vote by a huge margin.
Despite initially trailing to Nyo Saw, a retired general and the junta's prime minister, Min Aung Hlaing pulled ahead to win 429 votes to Nyo Saw's 126.
Min Aung Hlaing's ascent to the presidency - a position that analysts say he has long sought - followed a major reshuffle in the leadership of Myanmar's armed forces, which he had led since 2011.
On Monday, as he was nominated as a presidential candidate, he anointed Ye Win Oo, a former intelligence chief seen as a fierce loyalist, as his successor to lead the military.
Min Aung Hlaing's rise to the presidency is seen by analysts as an attempt to consolidate his power as head of a nominally civilian government and seek international legitimacy, while protecting the interests of a military that has run the country directly for five of the past six decades.
It was not clear if Min Aung Hlaing attended the vote and he was not seen during a broadcast of the proceedings on state television.
China, a longtime ally of Myanmar's generals, extended its congratulations and said it would support the new government in maintaining peace and stability.
The civil war that has wrecked Myanmar and its economy for much of the past five years is still raging, with the military under Min Aung Hlaing's command accused by human rights groups and United Nations experts of atrocities against the civilian population, which the junta has denied.
The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in 2024 sought an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing over the alleged persecution of the minority Muslim Rohingya, after more than a million fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape a military crackdown in 2017.
Some anti-junta groups, including those comprising remnants of Suu Kyi's party and longstanding ethnic minority armies, this week formed a new combined front to take on the military.
The Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union said its objectives were to "completely dismantle all forms of dictatorship" and initiate "a new political landscape".
