Death in office

A death in office is the death of a person who was incumbent of an office-position until the time of death. Such deaths have been usually due to natural causes, but they are also caused by accidents, suicides, and assassinations.

The death of most monarchs and popes have been deaths in office, since they have usually held their papacy/reign for the rest of their lives. Otherwise as most office positions require that the person is constantly competent in performing the associated duties, deaths in office are usually premature deaths.

Consequences

See also: Order of succession and Casual vacancy

Systems differ in how they deal with the death of an office holder. In some death results in a casual vacancy, whereby the office is unfilled for a time. The office may subsequently be filled by a by-election or by appointment. A person may temporarily take the powers and responsibilities of the deceased in an "acting" capacity before a permanent replacement is made. In other systems there may be a legally defined order of succession. For example, in hereditary monarchies reigns are typically expected to end with death and the transition of power to an heir. Many presidential systems have offices of vice president, whose principle responsibility is to immediately assume the presidency if the president dies or otherwise leaves the office.

Examples

Heads of state and government

Further information: List of heads of state and government who died in office and List of Presidents of the United States who died in office

Indonesian governor(s)

• Rizal Nurdin, governor of North Sumatra, died in a plane crash in 2005

Russian governors

• Aleksandr Lebed, governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, died in a helicopter crash in 2002
• Valentin Tsvetkov, governor of Magadan Oblast, killed in 2002
• Igor Farkhutdinov, governor of Sakhalin Oblast, died in a helicopter crash in 2003
• Mikhail Yevdokimov, governor of Altai Krai, died in a car accident in 2005
• Igor Yesipovsky, governor of Irkutsk Oblast, died in a helicopter crash in 2009
• Tamerlan Aguzarov, head of North Ossetia-Alania, died of pneumonia in 2016

Northern Rhodesia governor(s)

Sir John Maybin colonial governors of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) (1941)

U.S. Congress

Main article: United States Congress members who died in office

See also

• Category:People who died in office