After more than 50 years in the military, 15 of them as commander-in-chief, he was elected to the civilian role of president on Friday.

The bespectacled officer became the armed forces head in 2011, just as Myanmar broke with its history of iron-fisted martial rule and began an experiment with democracy.

He spent a decade jostling with civilian leaders before mounting his coup five years ago, jailing Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and triggering a vicious civil war that is still being fought.

Most recently, his official title in state media has been "State Security and Peace Commission Chairman Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Thadoe Maha Thray Sithu Thadoe Thiri Thudhamma Min Aung Hlaing".

Friday's presidential election was the culmination of a series of coordinated moves following a landslide win for pro-military parties in a heavily restricted poll overseen by the junta.

First he was replaced as the military's commander-in-chief, then nominated in the lower house as a vice-president before the whole parliament -- packed with serving military officers and political allies of the armed forces -- elected him president by a crushing majority.

The junta -- officially called the "State Security and Peace Commission" -- ceases to exist with his installation as president, cloaking his continued rule in civilian garb.

A former spymaster dubbed his "eyes and ears" replaced him as military chief, ensuring a loyal ally at the head of the armed forces.

The developments came after Min Aung Hlaing presided over the country's annual Armed Forces Day parade last week, festooned with his many military and civilian awards.

Tanks, multiple rocket launchers and even mini-submarines on lorries trundled through the streets as the military put on its biggest show of force in years.

The incoming government had been "legitimately elected by the people", he said, and the military would support it "with the aim of strengthening and sustaining the multi-party democracy system".

But the vote was widely condemned and criticised as illegal.

According to the Asian Network for Free Elections, parties that won 90 percent of seats at the last polls in 2020 -- including Suu Kyi's hugely popular National League for Democracy -- were unable to take part after having been dissolved.

-- Law student --

Min Aung Hlaing is a member of the Dawei ethnic group, which is often seen as part of Myanmar's Burmese majority but has a distinct cultural identity.

He spent his early childhood in central Myanmar, where his father was head of the arts department at a teacher training college, he told an interviewer in 2020.

He studied law at university before joining the military in 1974 and enrolling in officer academy, reportedly on his third attempt.

Rising through the ranks, he burnished his credentials by leading a campaign against an ethnic rebel insurrection around crucial trade crossings with China.

His predecessor, Than Shwe, ruled Myanmar for nearly two decades, but it was Min Aung Hlaing's rare fate to be a top general under civilian command, albeit with the military still playing a key role in politics.

Even before the 2021 coup, Min Aung Hlaing was persona non grata in many countries for commanding a 2017 military crackdown on the Rohingya ethnic minority that drove about 750,000 people into Bangladesh.

He was banned from Facebook for stoking hate speech, heavily sanctioned and the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor is seeking his arrest for crimes against humanity.

He steadfastly denies allegations of human rights abuses.

There is no official death toll for Myanmar's civil war, and estimates vary widely.

According to non-profit organisation Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), which tallies media reports of violence, as many as 90,000 have been killed on all sides since the coup.

That number almost certainly includes conscripts the military forcibly recruited to bolster its ranks.