Constitution of Myanmar

Myanmar's 2008 constitution was drafted by the ruling military government, approved in a May 2008 referendum, and entered into force on 31 January 2011, replacing the 1974 constitution that had been suspended after the 1988 coup, following two decades in which the country operated without a constitution. It creates a bicameral Pyidaungsu Hluttaw in which the military is guaranteed 25 percent of all seats, 110 of 440 in the lower house and 56 of 224 in the upper house, and reserves the home affairs, border affairs and defence ministries for officers appointed by the military commander-in-chief; it has been amended twice, in 2015 and 2020, without a referendum.