1Kim Il-sung
Even though he died in 1994, Kim Il-sung remains president of North Korea. The constitution was revised in 1998, declaring him 'Eternal President of the Republic', making North Korea the only necrocracy in the world - a government that still operates under the rules of a dead former leader.
2Élie Lescot
In 1941, Élie Lescot, the President of Haiti declared war on Japan, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. Only Romania bothered to declare war on Haiti in return.
3Yang Shangkun
Former Chinese President Yang Shangkun told his doctor before his death that the crackdown on June 4 had been the Communist Party's "most serious mistake in its history, a mistake he couldn't correct but which would eventually be corrected." He had initially opposed the use of force on students.
4Seretse Khama
Seretse Khama was a Botswana monarch who was exiled from his country for marrying a white woman. After his return as a private citizen, he started an independence movement, became a president, and led Botswana to prosperity.
5Sukarno
Indonesian President Sukarno ordered a Christian Architect to build the largest Mosque in the country and laid the foundation stone was in 1961. He also ordered it to be built next to a Cathedral and a Church as a symbol of national-religious harmony and tolerance. (Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population).
6Thomas Sankara
In 1987, Thomas Sankara (then president of Burkina Faso) was killed in a coup held by Blaise Compaoré. Ten years earlier, they were in a band together called 'Tout-à-Coup Jazz'.
7Vladimir Putin
Russia's Vladimir Putin once brought a large dog with him to a round of negotiations with Germany's Angela Merkel, knowing that she had a pathological fear of dogs, in order to gain a psychological edge.
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8Idi Amin
"His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular" was the official title of Idi Amin, who ruled Uganda.
9Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende, Latin America's "first-ever Marxist to be elected president in a liberal democracy"; gave his final speech while his house was being bombed and raided by troops loyal to Augusto Pinochet's US-backed coup. Allende committed suicide shortly after giving the speech.
10Charles D.B. King
Former president of Liberia Charles D.B. King holds the Guinness World record for the most fraudulent election ever, having won the 1927 election with 234,000 votes in a country of 15,000 voters.
