List of world leaders with shortest tenures
Liz Truss leaves 10 Downing Street as the prime minister with the shortest tenure in British history, having held the position for only 45 days total..Soon after Liz Truss announced her resignation as prime minister, The Economist predicted that “history books will not speak favourably of Liz Truss.” The newspaper claimed that although she had promised a fundamentally new age of economic growth, she will be remembered for her “many U-turns, unforced political and economic mistakes, and having the shortest term of any British prime minister in history.”
The list of world leaders with shortest tenures is as follows:-
The shortest tenure of a British prime minister up to Truss’s resignation was that of George Canning, who held the position for just 119 days before passing away on August 8, 1827, from either pneumonia or tuberculosis. Despite holding power for only five short months, The Telegraph said that his term was “75 days longer” than Truss’s premiership.
In the same way, Alec Douglas-Home of the Conservative Party served as prime minister for only 363 days when he was ousted by Harold Wilson of the Labour Party in the general election of 1964.
Moreover, after the Bharatiya Janata Party “failed to marshal the needed support on the floor of the house,” according to The Telegraph, Atal Bihari Vajpayee‘s first term as prime minister in India lasted only 13 days in May 1996. He came back to power again in 1998, this time for a brief 13-month tenure, and again in 1999, this time for a full term that lasted until 2004.
Similarly, after barely winning an election in 1967, Siaka Stevens, of Sierra Leone, was detained “one hour after he was sworn in” as prime minister, according to FirstPost. He was expelled from office and the military took over for two weeks before a counter-coup brought him back, and he thereafter held office for 17 years.
In the same way, the ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, had the shortest term of any president because he passed away only 32 days into the position in 1841. He also made history by passing away while in office at the age of 68.
On March 4, “a cold, wet day during which he rode on horseback and delivered what may have been the longest inaugural address in American history, lasting about two hours,” according to The Guardian, he took the oath of office. The illness that ended his life and presidency is said to have been brought on in part by his “refusal to wear a coat or hat that day,” and he passed just a month later on 4 April.
Pedro Lascuráin, who led Mexico for about 45 minutes on February 19, 1913, undoubtedly holds the record for the shortest presidency ever. According to Mental Floss, Lascuráin’s extremely brief tenure was “totally purposeful,” as he was employed “as a pawn in a political coup” that allowed General Victoriano Huerta to overthrow Francisco I. Madero’s democratically elected administration.
