NAYPYITAW, Myanmar — The prodemocracy party in Myanmar led by Aung San Suu Kyi announced ethnically diverse choices Thursday for leadership of the legislature as it prepares to take over the government from a military-backed party on Monday.

National League for Democracy executive Win Thein told reporters that it will nominate a member of the Burman ethnic majority, Win Myint, for lower house speaker and an ethnic Kachin, Ti Khun Myat, for his deputy. It will propose a Karen, Win Khaing Than, for speaker of the upper house, and an Arakanese, Aye Thar Aung, for his deputy. In another gesture toward unity, the proposed deputies come from other parties.

Ethnic conflict has bedeviled Myanmar for decades, with minority groups fielding guerrilla armies in a bid for greater autonomy.

Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from the presidency, and she not said who her party will select for president.

Associated Press