There were also parallel rules of precedence, primarily seniority based on age, on offices held, and on when they each obtained their titles, which made the rules for precedence rather complex. Combined with the ambiguous position of titled heirs of members of the "Mekwanint", Emperor Haile Selassie, as part of his programme of modernising reforms, and in line with his aims of centralising power away from the "Mesafint", replaced the traditional system of precedence with a simplified, Western-inspired system that gave precedence by rank, and then by seniority based when the title had been assumed irrespective of how the title was acquired.