World Leader 2006 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Iraq

Although the United Iraqi Alliance won the Iraqi general election in December 2006, it was May 2006 before al-Maliki, who comes from the Shia majority, was able to take office.

Ironically, al-Maliki's own party, the Dawa Party (or Islamic Da'wa Party) was once considered a terrorist organisation in the West.

Answer: Poland

Lech Kaczynski became president of Poland in December 2005. Although his twin brother Jaroslaw's Law and Justice party had won the September 2005 parliamentary election, Jaroslaw did not immediately become prime minister, that post going instead to Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz. When Marcinkiewicz resigned in July 2006, Lech appointed Jaroslaw as prime minister.

Answer: Jamaica

Ms Simpson-Miller became Jamaica's first female prime minister after being elected to the leadership of the ruling People's National Party.

Answer: Thailand

Shinawatra was a divisive figure in Thai politics. Although he won landslide victories in elections in 2001 and 2005 Shinawatra faced a wave of street protests over alleged corruption and accusations that he had disrespected the Thai king. A further election in 2006 was inconclusive because of a boycott by opposition parties and a further election was called.

In September, while Shinawatra was in New York, the military seized power to avert, it claimed, the civil unrest that would inevitably accompany any further election in which Shinawatra was involved. This was far from the first time the Thai military had involved itself in the politics of the nation.

The Fijian government was overthrown by a military coup d'état in December 2006.

Answer: Shinzo Abe

Abe is Japan's youngest post-war prime minister and the first to have been born after the end of the Second World War. His Liberal Democratic Party has ruled Japan for all but 2 and a half years since 1955.

Answer: Jan Peter Balkenende

Balkenende became PM of the Netherlands in 2002. In 2006 his coalition government lost its majority and he resigned. However, he formed a new coalition a week later and was reappointed.

In 2006 Verhofstadt was the prime minister of Belgium, Juncker of Luxembourg and Rasmussen of Denmark.

Answer: Madagascar

Ravalomanana was first elected following a disputed presidential poll in 2001 in which he was finally decalred the victor over former president, Didier Ratsiraka. He was re-elected for a second term in December 2006.

Answer: Liberia

Johnson-Sirleaf's election victory was at the end of 2005 although she took office in 2006. She had previously been a vocal opponent of two of her predecessors, the dictators, Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor.

Answer: Turkmenistan

Niyazov was Turkmenistan's first president following independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, although he had ruled it as First Secretary of the Turkmen Communist Party since 1985.

Niyazov adopted the name Turkmenbashi - the Father of All Turkmen. He famously issued a number of unusual decrees such as banning opera and ballet, banning young men from growing beards and newsreaders from wearing make-up. Niyazov also developed a personality cult in which a city and a month of the year were renamed after him. He himself claimed to take no pleasure from the innumerable portraits and statues of himself around the country, maintaining that the Turkmen people insisted on these.

Niyazov died of an apparent heart attack in December 2006.

Answer: Michelle Bachelet

Bachelet was previously imprisoned and tortured by the Pinochet regime which took power in a bloody coup in 1973.

Bachelet comes from the alliance of left-wing parties, known as the Concertacion which has held the Chilean presidency since the restoration of democracy in 1990.

Answer: Omar al-Bashir

Al-Bashir is from Sudan's northern Arabic region. His government was involved in long civil war with the predominantly black south of the country and has been repeatedly accused of colluding with genocidal actions in the western province of Darfur.

Answer: Bolivia's

Morales, a former coca grower, claims to be Bolivia's first indigenous leader since the Spanish conquest of the 16th Century.

Morales was one of a number of left-wing politicians elected to office across Latin America in 2005 & 2006.

Answer: Gabon

Omar Bongo was originally elected as Gabon's vice-president in 1967 but succeeded to the presidency a few months later on the president's death.

In 2005 he became Africa's longest-serving president. He was elected to his seventh term in office later that year.

Answer: Turkey

Although his Justice and Development Party won a comprehensive and surprising victory in the Novemeber 2002 general election, Erdogan was at that time barred from standing for parliament. He therefore did not become prime minister until March 2003.

Answer: Daniel Ortega

Although elected in 2006, Ortega did not take office until January 2007. He was president of Nicaragua 1985-90 until defeated in a free election. His previous attempts to win back the presidency at elections in 1996 and 2001 failed.

Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica was also elected in 2006, 16 years after the end of his first term as president.