Vladimir Putin announces bid for fifth term: The world’s top 10 longest serving leaders

Vladimir Putin has announced his intention to run for president in the March 2024 election, bringing the long-serving Russian leader one step closer to a fifth term in power.

The statement on Friday was widely expected, and there is little doubt about the result.

Putin is eligible to seek two more six-year terms after his current term expires next year, under constitutional changes he engineered in 2020, perhaps allowing him to stay in power until 2036.

If he stays in power until then, he will have served longer than Joseph Stalin, who controlled the Soviet Union for 29 years, making Putin the longest-serving Moscow leader since the Russian empire.

The election will take place on 17 March, and the winner will be sworn in in May.

Here are the top 10 longest-serving elected leaders in the world, ranked by total number of years in power.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (Equitorial Guniea): 44 years

The Soviet Union was still a decade from collapse when Teodoro Obiang Nguema, 81, came to power in a coup in the west African state of Equatorial Guinea in 1979.

Under his repressive 44-year rule, Equatorial Guinea has become known as the “North Korea of Africa”.

President Paul Biya (Cameroon): 41 years

The world’s oldest elected leader, 90-year-old Cameroonian president Paul Biya, has ruled his west African country with an iron fist since November 1982.

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Nicknamed “the Sphinx” for his inscrutable nature, he won a seventh consecutive term in 2018 after elections marred by allegations of fraud.

Preside President Denis Sassou Nguesso (Republic of Congo): 39 years

Denis Sassou Nguesso, 80, has spent 39 years at the helm of the country in central Africa. He was president from 1979 to 1992, then returned in 1997 after a civil war and has remained in power ever since.

President Yoweri Museveni (Uganda): 37 years

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni, 79, has led the central African country for 37 years. He was re-elected to a contested sixth term in 2021 elections.

President Emomali Rahmon (Tajikistan): 31 years

Emomali Rahmon, a 71-year-old former collective farm boss who came to power shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has had a firm grip on his poor, mountainous country for 31 years.

President Isaias Afwerki (Eritrea): 30 years

Former rebel leader Isaias Afwerki, 77, has been president of the reclusive Horn of Africa nation of Eritrea since it won independence from Ethiopia in 1993.

President Alexander Lukashenko (Belarus): 29 years

Belarus president Alexander Lukashenko, 69, a close ally of Putin, has used Soviet-style repression to remain in power in Ukraine’s neighbour for 29 years.

President Ismail Omar Guelle (Dijbouti): 24 years

Djibouti’s president Ismail Omar Guelleh, 76, who was re-elected to a fifth term in 2021, has been leader of the country that styles itself the “Dubai of Africa”, for 24 years.

President Vladimir Putin (Russia): 24 years

In Russia, 71-year-old Putin has been leader since December 1999.

He became acting president in December 1999, then served two terms from 2000 to 2008 before swapping jobs with his prime minister Dmitry Medvedev to circumvent rules limiting consecutive presidential mandates to two, only to reclaim the role of Kremlin leader in 2012.

Term limits would have disqualified Putin from standing in the next election but a controversial constitutional reform in 2020 paved the way for him to stay in power until at least 2036.

President Paul Kagame (Rwanda): 23 years

Rwandan president Paul Kagame, a former Tutsi rebel leader who put an end to a genocide of Tutsis in 1994, has been president of the small central African republic since April 2000.

With inputs from AFP