World's Longest Serving Heads of State that are Non-Royals

Rank	Name	Country	Office	Tenure began	Length of tenure
1.	Paul Biya	Cameroon	Prime Minister, then President[1]	30 June 1975	42 years, 144 days
2.	Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo	Equatorial Guinea	President[2]	3 August 1979	38 years, 110 days
3.	Ali Khamenei	Iran	President, then Supreme Leader[3]	13 October 1981	36 years, 39 days
4.	Nursultan Nazarbayev	Kazakhstan	Prime Minister, then First Secretary, then President[4]	22 March 1984	33 years, 244 days
5.	Denis Sassou Nguesso	Republic of the Congo	President[5]	8 February 1979 – 31 August 1992 (1st time) 25 October 1997 – present (2nd time)	33 years, 232 days
6.	Hun Sen	Cambodia	Prime Minister[6]	14 January 1985	32 years, 311 days
7.	Yoweri Museveni	Uganda	President	26 January 1986	31 years, 299 days
8.	Omar al-Bashir	Sudan	President[7]	30 June 1989	28 years, 144 days
9.	Idriss Déby	Chad	President[8]	2 December 1990	26 years, 354 days
10.	Isaias Afwerki	Eritrea	President[9]	27 April 1991	26 years, 208 days
11.	Emomali Rahmon	Tajikistan	Acting Head of State, then President[10]	19 November 1992	25 years, 2 days
12.	Paul Kagame	Rwanda	Vice-President, then President[11]	19 July 1994	23 years, 125 days
13.	Alexander Lukashenko	Belarus	President	20 July 1994	23 years, 124 days
14.	Artur Rasizade	Azerbaijan	Prime Minister[12]	20 July 1996 – 4 August 2003 (1st time) 6 August 2003 – present (2nd time)	21 years, 122 days
15.	Daniel Ortega	Nicaragua	Acting Head of State, then President[13]	4 March 1981 – 25 April 1990 (1st time) 10 January 2007 – present (2nd time)	20 years, 2 days
16.	Kim Yong-nam	North Korea	President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly[14]	5 September 1998	19 years, 77 days
17.	Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi	Samoa	Prime Minister	23 November 1998	18 years, 363 days
18.	Abdelaziz Bouteflika	Algeria	President	27 April 1999	18 years, 208 days
19.	Ismaïl Omar Guelleh	Djibouti	President	8 May 1999	18 years, 197 days
20.	Vladimir Putin	Russia	Prime Minister, then President[15]	9 August 1999 – 7 May 2000 (1st term as Prime Minister) 8 May 2000 – 7 May 2008 (1st term as President) 8 May 2008 – 7 May 2012 (2nd term as Prime Minister) 7 May 2012 – present (2nd term as President)	18 years, 104 days
21.	Keith Mitchell	Grenada	Prime Minister	22 June 1995 – 9 July 2008 (1st time) 20 February 2013 – present (2nd time)	17 years, 291 days
22.	Hage Geingob	Namibia	Prime Minister, then President[16]	21 March 1990 – 28 August 2002 (1st time) 4 December 2012 – present (2nd time)	17 years, 147 days
23.	Bashar al-Assad	Syria	President	17 July 2000	17 years, 127 days
24.	Joseph Kabila	Democratic Republic of the Congo	President	17 January 2001	16 years, 308 days
25.	Ralph Gonsalves	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Prime Minister	29 March 2001	16 years, 237 days
26.	Barnabas Sibusiso Dlamini	Swaziland	Prime Minister	26 July 1996 – 29 September 2003 (1st time) 23 October 2008 – present (2nd time)	16 years, 93 days
27.	Dési Bouterse	Suriname	De Facto Head of State, then President[17]	25 February 1980 – 25 January 1988 (1st time) 12 August 2010 – present (2nd time)	15 years, 70 days
28.	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	Turkey	Prime Minister, then President[18]	14 March 2003	14 years, 252 days
29.	Filip Vujanović	Montenegro	President[19]	22 May 2003	14 years, 183 days
30.	Ilham Aliyev	Azerbaijan	Prime Minister, then President[20]	4 August 2003	14 years, 109 days
31.	Abdelkader Taleb Omar	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic	Prime Minister	29 October 2003	14 years, 23 days
32.	Shavkat Mirziyoyev	Uzbekistan	Prime Minister, then President[21]	12 December 2003	13 years, 344 days
33.	Sheikh Hasina	Bangladesh	Prime Minister	23 June 1996 – 15 July 2001 (1st time) 6 January 2009 – present (2nd time)	13 years, 341 days
34.	Roosevelt Skerrit	Dominica	Prime Minister	8 January 2004	13 years, 317 days
35.	Mahmoud Abbas	Palestine	Prime Minister, then President[22]	19 March 2003 – 6 September 2003 (1st time) 15 January 2005 – present (2nd time)	13 years, 116 days
36.	Lee Hsien Loong	Singapore	Prime Minister	12 August 2004	13 years, 101 days
37.	Tommy Remengesau	Palau	President	1 January 2001 – 15 January 2009 (1st time) 17 January 2013 – present (2nd time)	12 years, 322 days
38.	Faure Gnassingbé	Togo	President[23]	5 February 2005 – 25 February 2005 (1st time) 4 May 2005 – present (2nd time)	12 years, 221 days
39.	Salva Kiir Mayardit	South Sudan	President[24]	30 July 2005	12 years, 114 days
40.	Pierre Nkurunziza	Burundi	President	26 August 2005	12 years, 87 days
41.	Angela Merkel	Germany	Federal Chancellor	22 November 2005	11 years, 364 days
42.	Ellen Johnson Sirleaf	Liberia	President	16 January 2006	11 years, 309 days
43.	Evo Morales	Bolivia	President	22 January 2006	11 years, 303 days
44.	Benjamin Netanyahu	Israel	Prime Minister	18 June 1996 – 6 July 1999 (1st time) 31 March 2009 – present (2nd time)	11 years, 252 days
45.	Viktor Orbán	Hungary	Prime Minister	6 July 1998 – 27 May 2002 (1st time) 29 May 2010 – present (2nd time)	11 years, 136 days
46.	Raúl Castro	Cuba	First Secretary, President and Prime Minister[25]	31 July 2006	11 years, 113 days
47.	Doris Leuthard	Switzerland	Federal Council Member, currently President[26]	1 August 2006	11 years, 112 days
48.	Frank Bainimarama	Fiji	Acting Head of State, then Prime Minister[27]	29 May 2000 – 13 July 2000 (1st time) 5 December 2006 – present (2nd time)	11 years, 31 days
49.	Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow	Turkmenistan	President[28]	21 December 2006	10 years, 335 days
50.	Serzh Sargsyan	Armenia	Prime Minister, then President[29]	25 March 2007	10 years, 241 days
51.	Ahmed Ouyahia	Algeria	Prime Minister	31 December 1995 – 15 December 1998 (1st time) 5 May 2003 – 24 May 2006 (2nd time) 23 June 2008 – 3 September 2012 (3rd time) 16 August 2017 – present (4th time)	10 years, 172 days
52.	Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta	Mali	Prime Minister, then President[30]	4 February 1994 – 15 February 2000 (1st time) 4 September 2013 – present (2nd time)	10 years, 89 days
53.	Bako Sahakyan	Artsakh[31]	President	7 September 2007	10 years, 75 days
54.	Ernest Bai Koroma	Sierra Leone	President	17 September 2007	10 years, 65 days
55.	Alassane Ouattara	Côte d'Ivoire	Prime Minister, then President[32]	7 November 1990 – 9 December 1993 (1st time) 4 December 2010 – present (2nd time)	10 years, 19 days

HEGEMON IN THE MAKING: THE BIRTH AND GROWTH OF THE WESTERN ELITE POLITICAL CLASS—From Celtic to Roman to Anglo-Saxon/Germanic

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