List of current longest ruling non-royal national leaders

This list of current longest ruling non-royal national leaders is a list of the current longest ruling heads of nation-states or national governments, who are not royalty, and have served ten years or longer, sorted by length of tenure.

The individuals on the list are not always the most powerful figure in their country's national government. Some are or have been at one time but not necessarily continuously throughout the listed timespan. Some of them have held more than one national leadership level office: presidency, prime minister-ship, or some other title implying or widely believed to confer national leadership. When more than one such office exists in a country, there may be uncertainty as to which member of the national government actually has the ultimate power. Therefore, this list combines all national level offices held concurrently or consecutively by each individual leader.

Rank Name Country Office Tenure Began Length of Tenure
1. Paul Biya  Cameroon Prime Minister, then President[1] 30 June 1975 41 years, 157 days
2. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo  Equatorial Guinea President[2] 3 August 1979 37 years, 123 days
3. José Eduardo dos Santos  Angola President 10 September 1979 37 years, 85 days
4. Robert Mugabe  Zimbabwe Prime Minister, then President[3] 18 April 1980 36 years, 230 days
5. Ali Khamenei  Iran President, then Supreme Leader[4] 13 October 1981 35 years, 52 days
6. Nursultan Nazarbayev  Kazakhstan Prime Minister, then First Secretary,
then President[5]		 22 March 1984 32 years, 257 days
7. Hun Sen  Cambodia Prime Minister[6] 14 January 1985 31 years, 325 days
8. Yoweri Museveni  Uganda President 26 January 1986 30 years, 313 days
9. Omar al-Bashir  Sudan President[7] 30 June 1989 27 years, 157 days
10. Idriss Déby  Chad President[8] 2 December 1990 26 years, 2 days
11. Isaias Afwerki  Eritrea President[9] 27 April 1991 25 years, 221 days
12. Emomali Rahmon  Tajikistan President[10] 19 November 1992 24 years, 15 days
13. Paul Kagame  Rwanda Vice-President, then President[11] 19 July 1994 22 years, 138 days
14. Alexander Lukashenko  Belarus President 20 July 1994 22 years, 137 days
15. Yahya Jammeh  The Gambia President[12] 22 July 1994 22 years, 135 days
16. Denis Sassou Nguesso  Republic of the Congo President[13] 25 October 1997 19 years, 40 days
17. Kim Yong-nam  North Korea President of the Presidium of the
Supreme People's Assembly[14]		 5 September 1998 18 years, 90 days
18. Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi  Samoa Prime Minister 23 November 1998 18 years, 11 days
19. Abdelaziz Bouteflika  Algeria President 27 April 1999 17 years, 221 days
20. Ismaïl Omar Guelleh  Djibouti President 8 May 1999 17 years, 210 days
21. Vladimir Putin  Russia Prime Minister, then President[15] 9 August 1999 17 years, 117 days
22. Bashar al-Assad  Syria President 17 July 2000 16 years, 140 days
23. Joseph Kabila  Democratic Republic of the Congo President 17 January 2001 15 years, 322 days
24. Ralph Gonsalves  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister 29 March 2001 15 years, 250 days
25. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan  Turkey Prime Minister, then President[16] 14 March 2003 13 years, 265 days
26. Filip Vujanović  Montenegro President[17] 22 May 2003 13 years, 196 days
27. Ilham Aliyev  Azerbaijan Prime Minister, then President[18] 4 August 2003 13 years, 122 days
28. Artur Rasizade  Azerbaijan Prime Minister[19] 6 August 2003 13 years, 120 days
29. Abdelkader Taleb Omar  Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Prime Minister 29 October 2003 13 years, 36 days
30. Shavkat Mirziyoyev  Uzbekistan Prime Minister,
then Acting President[20]		 11 December 2003 12 years, 359 days
31. Roosevelt Skerrit  Dominica Prime Minister 8 January 2004 12 years, 331 days
32. Lee Hsien Loong  Singapore Prime Minister 12 August 2004 12 years, 114 days
33. Mahmoud Abbas  Palestine President[21] 15 January 2005 11 years, 324 days
34. Faure Gnassingbé  Togo President[22] 4 May 2005 11 years, 214 days
35. Salva Kiir Mayardit  South Sudan President[23] 30 July 2005 11 years, 127 days
36. Pierre Nkurunziza  Burundi President 26 August 2005 11 years, 100 days
37. Angela Merkel  Germany Federal Chancellor 22 November 2005 11 years, 12 days
38. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf  Liberia President 16 January 2006 10 years, 323 days
39. Evo Morales  Bolivia President 22 January 2006 10 years, 317 days
40. Raúl Castro  Cuba First Secretary, President
and Prime Minister[24]		 31 July 2006 10 years, 126 days
41. Doris Leuthard   Switzerland Federal Council Member[25] 1 August 2006 10 years, 125 days
42. Frank Bainimarama  Fiji Acting Head of State,
then Prime Minister[26]		 5 December 2006 9 years, 365 days

Footnotes

  1. ↑ was Prime Minister of Cameroon from 30 June 1975 to 6 November 1982
  2. ↑ was Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council / Supreme Military Council of Equatorial Guinea from 3 August 1979 to 12 October 1982
  3. ↑ was Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 18 April 1980 to 31 December 1987
  4. ↑ Was President of Iran from 13 October 1981 to 2 August 1989, leaving the presidency close to two months after becoming Supreme Leader. Was approved as Supreme Leader of Iran by the Assembly of Experts and sworn in on 4 June 1989, shortly after the death of the founder of this Shia Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Khomeini.
  5. ↑ Was Prime Minister of the Kazakh SSR from 22 March 1984 to 27 July 1989, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR from 22 June 1989 to 14 December 1991, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet (head of State) of the Kazakh SSR from 22 February 1990 to 24 April 1990, and President of the Kazakh SSR from 24 April 1990 to 16 December 1991.
  6. ↑ Was Prime Minister of the Vietnam-occupation one-Party state called the People's Republic of Kampuchea from 14 January 1985 to 1 May 1989. Was also Prime Minister during the entire existence of the State of Cambodia from 1 May 1989 to 24 September 1993.
  7. ↑ was Chairman of the Sudanese Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation from 30 June 1989 to 16 October 1993
  8. ↑ was President of the Council of State of Chad from 2 December 1990 to 4 March 1991
  9. ↑ Was Secretary-General of the Provisional Government of Eritrea from 27 April 1991 to 24 May 1993, when Eritrea declared independence from Ethiopia.
  10. ↑ was Chairman of the Supreme Assembly (Speaker of Parliament) of Tajikistan – de facto head of state – from 19 November 1992 to 16 November 1994
  11. ↑ Was Vice-President from 19 July 1994 to 22 April 2000 and Acting President from 24 March 2000 to 22 April 2000.
  12. ↑ was Chairman of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council of the Gambia from 22 July 1994 to 28 September 1996
  13. ↑ was previously President of the Central Committee of the Congolese Party of Labour from 8 February 1979 to 31 August 1992, when the country was a one-Party state known as the People's Republic of the Congo
  14. ↑ The "President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly" performs some of the duties of a head of state. The position of President (formerly the head of state) was written out of the constitution in 1998. State founder Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994, was given the appellation "Eternal President".
  15. ↑ Was Prime Minister of Russia from 9 August 1999 to 7 May 2000 and Acting President from 31 December 1999 to 7 May 2000; then President of Russia from 7 May 2000 to 7 May 2008; then Prime Minister again from 8 May 2008 to 7 May 2012.
  16. ↑ was Prime Minister of Turkey from 14 March 2003 to 28 August 2014
  17. ↑ Montenegro did not gain independence until 3 June 2006, being part of Serbia and Montenegro. Vujanović was previously Acting President from 25 November 2002 to 19 May 2003.
  18. ↑ was Acting President of Azerbaijan from 6 August 2003 to 31 October 2003
  19. ↑ Was previously Prime Minister of Azerbaijan from 20 July 1996 to 4 August 2003; and Interim Prime Minister from 6 August 2003 to 4 November 2003.
  20. ↑ became Acting President of Uzbekistan on 8 September 2016
  21. ↑ was previously Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority from 19 March 2003 to 6 September 2003
  22. ↑ Was previously President of Togo from 5 February 2005 to 25 February 2005, when it was disputed whether he had inherited the presidency from his deceased father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma.
  23. ↑ South Sudan did not gain independence until 9 July 2011, being part of Sudan. Kiir was Acting President of the Southern Sudan Autonomous Region from 30 July 2005 to 11 August 2005.
  24. ↑ Was Acting President and Acting Prime Minister of Cuba from 31 July 2006 to 24 February 2008; and Acting First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 31 July 2006 to 19 April 2011. Under the one-Party system, the position of First Secretary is a more important and powerful position than the Presidency of Cuba.
  25. ↑ The Swiss Federal Council is a collective seven-member Head of State. Leuthard served as chairperson of the Federal Council, i.e. as the President of the Swiss Confederation, in the constitutional customary one-year period from 1 January to 31 December 2010. From 1 January 2016 to present, she is the deputy chairperson of the Federal Council, or Vice President, of Switzerland.
  26. ↑ Was previously President of the Interim Military Government of Fiji from 29 May 2000 to 13 July 2000; then again President of the Interim Military Government of Fiji from 5 December 2006 to 4 January 2007. Was Acting Prime Minister from 5 January 2007 to 22 September 2014.

See also

External links

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