TASS. Twenty-seven countries across the globe elected their presidents in 2025. TASS gives a rundown of the presidential goings-on from this year.
Europe
On January 12, Zoran Milanovic was re-elected Croatia’s president with 74.68% of votes. He took office in 2020. His rival, scientist and former Minister of Science, Education and Sport Dragan Primorac, who ran for president as an independent, garnered 25.32% of the vote.
On January 26, Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus’ leader since 1994, was re-elected president again, carrying 86.82% of the vote and beating out four other candidates.
On February 12, Greece’s parliament elected its former speaker (2019-2025) Konstantinos Tasoulas as the country’s president in the fourth round of voting. He took office on March 13.
On March 1, Abkhazia held the second round of early presidential elections. The office was contested by Vice President Badra Gunba and leader of the opposition Abkhaz People’s Movement Adgur Ardzinba. Gunba won with 54.73% of the vote and was inaugurated on April 2.
On May 18, Bucharest’s mayor and a pro-European independent candidate Nicusor Dan scored 53.6% of votes and won the runoff presidential election in Romania. His rival was George Simion, leader of the rightist Alliance for the Union of Romanians. Dan was sworn into office on May 26.
On June 1, Karol Nawrocki, from the opposition right-wing party Law and Justice, narrowly won the runoff presidential election in Poland with 50.89% of votes. His rival was Warsaw’s Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski who represented the ruling center-right Civic Coalition. Nawrocki took office on August 6.
On October 24, Ireland elected Catherine Connolly, an independent candidate, as its president. She won 63.36% of the vote and was inaugurated on November 11 to become Ireland’s third ever female president. Her rival was Heather Maud Humphreys of the Fine Gael centrist party, a member of the ruling coalition.
Americas
On April 13, the runoff presidential election was held in Ecuador. Incumbent President Daniel Noboa, who represented the center-right National Democratic Action alliance, and Luisa Gonzalez of the leftist Citizens’ Revolution movement vied for presidency. Noboa won the race with 55.63% of votes, taking office for a second time on May 24.
On July 6, Suriname’s parliament elected Jennifer Geerlings-Simons of the center-right National Democratic Party to lead the country. She was sworn into office on July 16 to become the first ever woman to hold the presidency of Suriname.
On September 1, Guyana’s incumbent President Mohamed Irfaan Ali was re-elected for his second presidential term. Under this country’s constitution, the presidential office is taken by a candidate nominated by the party that wins parliamentary elections. Irfaan Ali represents the center-left People’s Progressive Party that won 36 out of 65 seats in the country’s parliament. He was inaugurated on September 7.
On October 7, Barbados’ parliament proclaimed Jeffrey Bostic as the country’s president (with no alternative candidates). He was nominated by Prime Minister Mia Mottley and the opposition leader, Ralph Thorne. Bostic took office on November 30.
On October 19, Bolivia held a runoff presidential election. Rodrigo Paz, a nominee of the centrist Christian Democratic Party, garnered 54.61% of the vote and outstripped his rival, Jorge Quiroga of the center-right Freedom and Democracy Alliance. Paz was inaugurated as president on November 8.
On November 30, Nasry Asfura, nominated by the right-wing National Party, scored 40.27% of votes to win a narrow victory (by only 1 p.p.) over Salvador Nasralla for president of Honduras. Asfura’s inauguration is scheduled for January 27, 2026.
On December 14, Jose Antonio Kast of the conservative Republican Party won the runoff presidential election in Chile having garnered 58.61% of votes. His rival was Jeannette Jara of the center-left Unity for Chile coalition. Kast will take office on March 11, 2026 to be Chile’s first ultraright president since the collapse of the Pinochet regime (1974-1990).
Asia
On January 9, Lebanon’s parliament elected General Joseph Aoun, the commander of the Lebanese army, as the country’s president. He carried support from 99 out of 128 lawmakers. He took office on the same day. The presidential office had remained vacant since October 31, 2022, when Michel Aoun’s office term expired. Aoun took office in 2016.
On June 3, the Democratic Party’s candidate, Lee Jae-myung, won the presidential election in South Korea with 49.4% of votes. His rival, Kim Moon-soo, representing the conservative People Power Party, mustered 41.1% of the vote (the winning candidate is the one scoring a relative majority of votes). The inauguration ceremony took place on June 4.
Africa
On April 12, Gabon held its first presidential election after the August 2023 state coup. The country’s head of state in the transitional period Brice Oligui Nguema won the poll with 94.85% of the vote. Nguema’s closest rival, former Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, scored 3.11% of votes. Following the election, African organizations lifted their sanctions against the country that had been imposed after the state coup. Nguema was sworn into office on May 3.
On May 3, Togo’s parliament unanimously elected Jean-Lucien Kwassi Lanyo Savi de Tove as the country’s president. He took office on the same day to complete the formation of new power bodies under the April 2024 constitution that transformed Togo from a presidential into a parliamentary republic. Under the new constitution, the actual power in the country is in the hands of the prime minister. Former head of state, Faure Essozimna Gnassinge, who had been the country’s president since 2005, was appointed as prime minister on the same day.
On September 16, Peter Mutharika won the presidential race in Malawi. Mutharika, who already held the office in 2014-2020, won 56.8% of votes, outstripping incumbent head of state, Lazarus Chakwera (in office since 2020), who scored some 33%. Mutharika was sworn in on October 4.
On October 11, Patrick Herminie, the leader of the opposition center-left United Seychelles party and former parliament speaker, won Seychelles’ runoff presidential election with 52.7% of the vote. His rival was incumbent President Wavel Ramkalawan. The inauguration ceremony was held on October 26.
On October 12, Paul Biya was elected to his ninth presidential term in Cameroon. Biya, 92, is the world’s oldest sitting president and second in terms of consecutive time holding power (first place is held by Equatorial Guinea’s leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has held the highest office since 1979). Biya won 53.66% of votes. His rival, opposition leader Bakary Issa Tchiroma, who garnered 35.19%, rejected the results of the voting and called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest.
On October 25, incumbent President of Cote d'Iviore Alassane Ouattara, who had been in office since 2011, won the presidential poll with 89.77% of votes. His rival, former Trade Minister Jean-Louis Billon scored 3.09%. Opposition candidates were barred from running for president.
On October 29, Samia Suluhu Hassan was re-elected as Tanzania’s president. As the vice president, she took the presidential office in March 2011 after the death of the then president, John Magufuli, to be the country’s first woman in this office. At the beginning of her first office term, she carried out a number of democratic reforms but at the end of it she exerted unprecedented pressure on the opposition to bar its leaders from taking part in elections. According to official data, Suluhu Hassan garnered 97.66% of the vote. Protests erupted across the country already on the day of voting demanding its results be cancelled.
On November 23, a presidential election was held in Guinea-Bissau. Taking part in the race were incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, who had been in office since 2020, representing the Movement for Democratic Alternation, Madem-G15, and independent candidate Fernando Dias da Costa, who headed the opposition after the largest opposition African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) had been barred from taking part in the election. The vote counting procedures were not completed as on November 26, a military coup took place, ousting the incumbent president, and canceling the voting results. Embalo’s opponents claimed that this had been a fake coup staged to prevent the opposition from winning the poll.
On December 28, the Central African Republic (CAR) held its first presidential election under the new constitution of 2023, which lifted restrictions on the number of consecutive officer terms for the president. The candidates included incumbent President Faustin-Archange Touadera (in office since 2016) and former Prime Ministers Anicet-Georges Dologuele (1999-2001) and Henri-Marie Dondra (2021-2022). According to preliminary data, Touadera is leading by a significant margin.
Also on December 28, Guinea held a presidential election for the first time since the September 2021 coup. Nine candidates, including the coup leader and the head of state for the transitional period Mamady Doumbouya, vied for the presidential office.
Oceania
On October 14, Nauru’s parliament unanimously re-elected David Adeang (in office since 2023) for his second three-year office term as president.