State Counsellor of Myanmar
2016–2021 de facto head of government of Myanmar
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The State Counsellor of Myanmar (Burmese: နိုင်ငံတော်၏ အတိုင်ပင်ခံပုဂ္ဂိုလ်) was the de facto head of government of Myanmar, equivalent to a prime minister, from 2016 to 2021.[2] The office was created in 2016 after Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the 2015 Myanmar general election so she could lead the government despite being constitutionally ineligible for the presidency.[3] The officeholder could “contact ministries, departments, organizations, associations and individuals” in an official capacity, while being accountable to parliament.[4] The office was abolished by Aung San Suu Kyi's political adversary, Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Min Aung Hlaing, after he seized power from her in a 2021 military coup d'état.[1]
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(formal)
State Counsellor
(informal)
| State Counsellor of Myanmar | |
|---|---|
| မြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် အတိုင်ပင်ခံပုဂ္ဂိုလ် | |
| |
| Style | His/Her Excellency (formal) State Counsellor (informal) |
| Type | Head of government (de facto) |
| Status | Office abolished[1] |
| Seat | Naypyidaw |
| Nominator | Assembly of the Union |
| Appointer | President |
| Term length | Equivalent to incumbent President (5 years, renewable once) |
| Inaugural holder | Aung San Suu Kyi |
| Formation | 6 April 2016 |
| Abolished | 1 February 2021 |
| Superseded by | Chairman of the State Administration Council |
| Website | www |
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Background
Constitutionally, the post was created on 6 April 2016 to allow for a greater role for Aung San Suu Kyi within the Government of Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the 2015 Myanmar general election; however she is constitutionally barred from becoming President of Myanmar as her late husband Michael Aris was British and her two children also hold British nationality.[5]
The bill to create the post was passed by the upper house of the Assembly of the Union on 1 April 2016 and by the lower house on 5 April 2016, and signed by President Htin Kyaw on 6 April 2016.[5][6] The law explicitly references Aung San Suu Kyi, and references several priorities, including cultivation of a multi-party democratic system, proper implementation of a market economy system, establishment of a federal union, and establishment of domestic peace and development.[7][8]
Roles and responsibilities
The post was similar to that of a prime minister in that it allowed the holder to work across all areas of government[9] and to act as a link[further explanation needed] between the executive and legislative branches. The State Counsellor had a term of five years, the same term as that of the president.[10]
List of state counsellors
| Portrait | Name (Born–Died) |
Term of Office | Political Party | Cabinet | President | Assembly | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Term start | Term end | Term in office | |||||||
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Aung San Suu Kyi (born 1945) |
6 April 2016 | 1 February 2021 | 4 years, 301 days | National League for Democracy | II | NLD—Mil. | Htin Kyaw, Win Myint | 2 (2015) |
| Prior to being removed from office in a coup d'état on 1 February 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi concurrently served as the Minister for Foreign Affairs and for the Office of the President as well as leader of the majority party, the National League for Democracy. | |||||||||
State Counsellorship of Aung San Suu Kyi
| Category | Key Initiatives & Achievements |
|---|---|
| Diplomacy |
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| Economic Reform |
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| Education & Youth |
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| Ethnic Relations |
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| International Standing |
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