Deputy Prime Minister of Australia accepted the view put to him by McEwen that to commission a Liberal temporarily as Prime Minister would give that person an unfair advantage in the forthcoming party room ballot for the permanent leader. McEwen's appointment was in keeping with the previous occasion when the main non-Labor party was without a leader; Earle Page of the Country Party was interim Prime Minister between 7 and 26 April 1939—the period between Joseph Lyons' sudden death and the United Australia Party naming Robert Menzies his successor. Since 1968 only two Deputy Prime Ministers have gone on to become Prime Minister: Paul Keating
Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia and Jaša Prodanović. From then on, the office was usually held simultaneously by several people at the same time. Also, Deputy Prime Ministers sometimes combined the post with another government portfolio. The office of the Deputy Prime Minister of FR Yugoslavia was abolished with the constitutional reforms of 2003. Therefore, the last Deputy Prime Minister was Miroljub Labus, who served from 4 November 2000 to 17 March 2003. Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia The Deputy Prime Minister of Yugoslavia was the official Deputy of the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia and later Prime Minister of FR