AKIPRESS.COM - Hundreds of MPs have begun a parliamentary session in Myanmar to see in the first democratically elected government in more than 50 years.

It is an assembly dominated by MPs from Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which won 80% of contested seats in November's poll, reports BBC.

But a quarter of all seats are reserved for the military, which also retains control of key ministries.

One of the new parliament's first jobs will be to choose a new president.

Outgoing leader Thein Sein steps down at the end of March, but Ms Suu Kyi, who spent 15 years under house arrest, is constitutionally barred from standing because her sons are British not Burmese.

She has previously indicated, however, that she will seek to exert influence through the new leader.

November's polls were the first openly contested national elections in 25 years in Myanmar, also known as Burma.