Prime Minister U Thein Sein won the presidency of Myanmar in the presidential election among three designated vice presidents during the current session of the union parliament which continued Friday, official sources said.

Dr. Sai Mauk Kham and Thiha Thura U Tin Aung Myint Oo remain as the vice presidents.

All of the three represent the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

They were elected by the presidential electoral college comprising all the union parliament representatives.

The terms of office of the president and the vice presidents are five years, according to the state constitution.

U Thein Sein, 65, won the majority votes with 408 against Thiha Thura U Tin Aung Myint Oo with 171 votes and Dr. Sai Mauk Kham with 75 votes respectively.

President-elect U Thein Sein is to form a new government.

U Thein Sein, USDP chairman, came from Nay Pyi Taw region's Zabuthiri constituency in the 2010 general election, while Dr. Sai Mauk Kham, from Shan state constituency-3 and Thiha Thura U Tin Aung Myint Oo from Nay Pyi Taw region's Pobbathiri constituency.

U Thein Sein was nominated for presidential run by the group of house of representatives, while Dr. Sai Mauk Kham was nominated by the group of house of nationalities and Thiha Thura U Tin Aung Myint Oo, first secretary of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), was nominated by the group of military-nominated parliament representatives.

The union parliament is constituted with two level of parliaments -- house of representatives and house of nationalities.

U Thein Sein, No. 4 state leader, has been prime minister since October 2007 when he took over the premiership from demised General Soe Win. Thein Sein was then SPDC first secretary. He was also triangle region commander in 1997 when the SPDC was formed.

He was assigned as Chairman of the National Convention Convening Commission when the convention resumed in 2004 to undertake continued drafting of the new state constitution after a seven-step roadmap to democracy was worked out in 2003.

Quitting his military title, Thein Sein formed the USDP in April 2010 to run the November 2010 multi-party general election, in which he was elected as a member of the house of representatives.

His USDP, involving military-title-abandoned government ministers and deputy ministers, won the majority of 882 parliamentary seats or 76.43 percent out of a total of 1,154 at three levels.

The USDP occupies 259 seats or 79.69 percent out of 325 with the house of representatives, 129 seats or 76.79 percent out of 168 with the house of nationalities and 494 seats or 74.74 percent out of 661 with the seats of region or state parliament.

The USDP, claimed as having a membership of 16 to 18 million, was transformed from the previous Union Solidarity and Development Association (USDA) operating under the name of a social organizations which came into being in 1993.

The politically-unknown vice president-elect Dr. Sai Mauk Kham, born in the border town of Muse in 1950, is known as a doctor with a medical degree obtained from Mandalay. He has served as Chairman of the Central Shan Literature and Cultural Organization.

U Tin Aung Myint Oo, No. 5 state leader, also quitted his military title and entered the 2010 general election, in which he was elected as representative to the house of representatives.

He became SPDC first secretary with the military rank of lieutenant-general in October 2007, the post left by Thein Sein then. He was Quartermaster-General and North East Commander in 1997.

A presidential electoral process of Myanmar's union parliament began on Tuesday with three groups -- two groups of parliamentary representatives-elect (lower house and upper house) and group of military-nominated representatives -- each nominating their candidates to run for presidential election.

On Monday's first session of each level of the parliament, No. 3 Myanmar state leader Thura U She Mann, who is SPDC member and previously a general holding the military post of chief of general staff of the army, the navy and the air force, was elected as speaker of the house of representatives, while U Khin Aung Myint, minister of Culture, was elected as speaker of the house of nationalities as well as speaker of the union parliament.

Myanmar started its first three-chamber parliament sessions simultaneously Monday with the sessions of the house of representatives (lower house) and house of nationalities (upper house) taking place at the newly-built parliament buildings in the new capital of Nay Pyi Taw, while the sessions of region or state parliament also began separately in 14 respective regions or states on the same day.

The summon for the first sessions of the three-level parliaments in two decades by the ruling SPDC came nearly three months after the end of the multi-party general election on Nov. 7 , 2010.

In the 2010 general election, 1,154 candidates out of over 3, 000 representing political parties in contesting were elected as parliamentary representatives at three levels, in which 325 as representatives to the house of representatives, 168 as representatives to the house of nationalities and 661 as representatives to the region or state parliaments.