Shortest-serving leaders of all time

The briefest stays in power across the 193 countries we track. 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	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

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 →