Shortest-serving leaders of all time

The briefest stays in power across 193 countries. Behind almost every one is a coup, a crisis, or a death. Where we know the story, it is told below.

See also: longest-serving leaders and tenure by political system

All time — top 10

#	Leader	Country	In office	Days
1	Víctor González Fuentes	🇧🇴 Bolivia	1978–1978	<1
2	Sakari Tuomioja	🇫🇮 Finland	1953–1953	<1
3	Hyppolite Ramaroson	🇲🇬 Madagascar	2009–2009	<1
4	Pedro Lascuráin	🇲🇽 Mexico	1913–1913	<1
	The shortest presidency in history. On 19 February 1913, during General Victoriano Huerta's coup, Lascuráin became president of Mexico for under an hour, just long enough to legally appoint Huerta as his successor and resign.
5	Mariano Holguín	🇵🇪 Peru	1931–1931	<1
6	Pedro Carve	🇺🇾 Uruguay	1875–1875	<1
7	Joaquín Suárez	🇺🇾 Uruguay	1852–1852	<1
8	Walter Breisky	🇦🇹 Austria	1922–1922	1
	A civil servant who served as Austria's chancellor for a single day in January 1922, bridging the gap between one collapsed government and the next.
9	Fazlul Haque	🇧🇩 Bangladesh	2007–2007	1
10	Honoré Traoré	🇧🇫 Burkina Faso	2014–2014	1
	The general who declared himself Burkina Faso's head of state when President Compaoré fled the 2014 uprising. The army replaced him with another officer within a day.

Modern history — top 10 (since 1826)

Restricted to leaders who took office in the last 200 years.

#	Leader	Country	In office	Days
1	Víctor González Fuentes	🇧🇴 Bolivia	1978–1978	<1
2	Hyppolite Ramaroson	🇲🇬 Madagascar	2009–2009	<1
3	Walter Breisky	🇦🇹 Austria	1922–1922	1
	A civil servant who served as Austria's chancellor for a single day in January 1922, bridging the gap between one collapsed government and the next.
4	Fazlul Haque	🇧🇩 Bangladesh	2007–2007	1
5	Honoré Traoré	🇧🇫 Burkina Faso	2014–2014	1
	The general who declared himself Burkina Faso's head of state when President Compaoré fled the 2014 uprising. The army replaced him with another officer within a day.
6	Pedro Opaso	🇨🇱 Chile	1931–1931	1
7	Clímaco Calderón	🇨🇴 Colombia	1882–1882	1
	President of Colombia for one day in December 1882, stepping in when President Francisco Javier Zaldúa died suddenly in office.
8	Haribon Chebani	🇰🇲 Comoros	1989–1989	1
9	Carlos Manuel Piedra	🇨🇺 Cuba	1959–1959	1
10	Eddy Kapend	🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo	2001–2001	1

See the full top 100 →