Ismail al-Azhari, the leader of the National Unionist Party, was made president in July 1965, and ruled with limited power until he was deposed in 1969. The military officers responsible for the coup established the National Revolutionary Command Council, chaired by Gaafar Nimeiry. Nimeiry, the leader of the newly formed Sudanese Socialist Union, assumed the position of president in 1971, and subsequently established a one-party state, which existed until 1985, when a group of military officers overthrew his government and established the Transitional Military Council, led by Lieutenant-General Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab. Ahmed al-Mirghani succeeded to the relatively powerless position of Chairman of the Supreme Council in 1986, after multi-party elections held that year. He was deposed in a 1989 military coup led by Lieutenant-General Omar al-Bashir. Al-Bashir has served as head of state since the coup, under the title of Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation to 1993 and as president from 1993 onwards (and from 1996 as the leader of the National Congress Party).