The prime minister of Myanmar is the

head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. The post was re-established in 2021 by the

State Administration Council The State Administration Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော်စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီ; abbreviated SAC or နစက) is the military junta currently governing Myanmar, established by Comm ...

, the country's ruling

military junta A military junta () is a government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the national and local junta organized by the Spanish resistance to Napoleon's invasion of Spain in ...

, to lead its nominally-civilian

provisional government A provisional government, also called an interim government, an emergency government, or a transitional government, is an emergency governmental authority set up to manage a political transition generally in the cases of a newly formed state or ...

. The provisional government is subject to the decision-making of the SAC; additionally, there is a significant overlap in the membership of both bodies. There is no provision for a prime minister in the

2008 Constitution of Myanmar The Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (2008) is the third Constitution of Myanmar after 1947 and 1974 constitutions which lost force after military coups. It is part of the seven steps road map announced by then Prime Minist ...

, with the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

being the constitutional head of government. The current prime minister is

Min Aung Hlaing Min Aung Hlaing ( my, မင်းအောင်လှိုင် abbreviated: MAL ; born 3 July 1956) also known as Alaungsithu is a Burmese politician and army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Coun ...

, who is also the leader of the junta and the commander-in-chief of defence services. The post had been used by previous military governments, as recently as 2011.

History of the office

The position of Prime Minister was created in 1948, with the adoption of the

Burmese Declaration of Independence The Burmese Declaration of Independence ( my, လွတ်လပ်ရေးကြေညာစာတမ်း) was officially promulgated on 4 January 1948, as a result of the Burma Independence Act 1947, which brought to an end British rule in B ...

from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. Since then, eleven people have held the office (with two of them doing so on multiple occasions). Due to the country's long period of military rule, it has not been uncommon for the prime minister to be a serving (or recently retired) military officer. The actual power of the prime minister has considerably varied over time, differing based on who holds the office. In 2004, a power struggle between the then–

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

, Senior General

Than Shwe Than Shwe ( my, သန်းရွှေ, ; born 2 February 1933 or 3 May 1935) is a Burmese strongman politician who was the head of state of Myanmar from 1992 to 2011 as Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). During this ...

, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council, and his prime minister, General

Khin Nyunt General Khin Nyunt (; ; born 23 October 1939) is a Burmese military officer and politician. He held the office of Chief of Intelligence and was Prime Minister of Myanmar from 25 August 2003 until 18 October 2004. Early life and education Kh ...

, resulted in the prime minister being dismissed and arrested. The position was abolished on 30 March 2011, according to the current

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

(adopted in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

). It provided that the

is both the head of state and head of government. But after the 2015 general election, as

Aung San Suu Kyi Aung San Suu Kyi (; ; born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2 ...

was constitutionally barred from becoming

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

, an office named State Counsellor, functionally identical to that of Prime Minister, was established for her on 6 April 2016. On 1 August 2021,

formed the caretaker government and chairman of SAC became Prime Minister.

List of prime ministers of Myanmar

Notes

References

External links

World Statesmen – Myanmar (Burma)

{{Prime Ministers

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

History of the office

List of prime ministers of Myanmar

See also

Notes

References

External links