Constitution of Myanmar

Constitution of Myanmar
Page one of the original copy of the Constitution
Created	9 April 2008
Ratified	29 May 2008
Purpose	To replace the 1974 Constitution of Burma

The Constitution of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar (Burmese: မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ ဖွဲ့စည်းပုံ အခြေခံ ဥပဒေ [mjəmà nàɪɴŋàɴ pʰwɛ̰zíbòʊɴ ʔətɕèɡàɴ ʔṵbədè]) is the supreme law of Myanmar. The country's third and current constitution, it was published in September 2008 after a referendum.

The 1947 constitution was drafted by Chan Htoon and was used from the country's independence in 1948 to 1962, when the constitution was suspended by the socialist Union Revolutionary Council, led by Ne Win. The national government consisted of three branches: judicial, legislative and executive. The legislative branch was a bicameral legislature called the Union Parliament, consisting of two chambers, the 125-seat Chamber of Nationalities (လူမျိုးစုလွှတ်တော် Lumyozu Hluttaw) and the Chamber of Deputies (ပြည်သူ့လွှတ်တော် Pyithu Hluttaw), whose seat numbers were determined by the population size of respective constituencies.

Approved in a 1973 referendum, the 1974 constitution was the second constitution to be written. It created a unicameral legislature called the People's Assembly (Pyithu Hluttaw), represented by members of the Burma Socialist Programme Party. Each term was 4 years.Ne Win became the president at this time.