Tucked between Gabon and Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea is a postage stamp of West Africa that has accumulated vast wealth thanks to the discovery of oil reserves. Never the less, that wealth remains in the hands of very few, and the government ranks highly on Transparency International‘s Corruption Perception Index.

Until 1979, power was held by Francisco Macías Nguema, known for his penchant for executing entire families and villages. Obiang seized the presidency from Macías Nguema in a military coup, and relaxed some of the restrictions that had been enforced. He remains in power to this day and is now Africa’s longest serving president. Francisco Macías Nguema was his uncle.

In 2004, Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister, funded an attempted coup d’état that would have resulted in a different pair of underpants being revealed here today. Whilst Obiang joins World Leaders in Their Underpants, Mark Thatcher got a four-year suspended sentence and a fine of around half a million dollars.

The Al Khalifa family have ruled Bahrain since 1783, when Ahmed ibn Muhammad ibn Khalifa, also known as Ahmed the Conqueror, seized the oil-rich archipelago. Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was emir of Bahrain from 1999 until 2002, when he declared the emirate a constitutional monarchy. Whilst this arguably makes him a fairly progressive monarch, even with 4-yearly parliamentary elections, around half of the government are members of the Al Khalifa family. The prime minister is the king’s uncle.

As things stand, it seems likely that whichever way you look at, it’ll be an Al Khalifa whose underpants will be revealed for this collection. Along with many other countries in the Middle East, a massive uprising swelled in February 2011. Chief among the protesters’ demands was that King Hamad step down. He did not step down. He called in the Saudi army to crush the rebellion.

Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s underpants will be known to his four wives. Now they are known to you, and the other leaders he joins at World Leaders in Their Underpants.

As one of the world’s most secretive nations, it’s difficult to talk with any certainty about what’s going on within the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Technically, their president is Kim Il-sung, who, despite having died in 1994 was designated holder of the post in perpetuity. The alternative title of Supreme Leader was created for his son and successor, Kim Jong-il, who held that post until his death in 2011. It’s not absolutely clear who is in charge now, but according to most accounts, it is his third son, Kim Jong-un, seen here in his underpants.

Swiss educated diabetic, Kim Jong-un is reportedly a shy boy, although this is somewhat mitigated by his being supreme commander of one of the world’s largest standing armies. North Korea is also one of eight nations to have successfully detonated a nuclear weapon. Their most recent weapons test, in 2009, is thought to have been a display of military strength following speculation about the health of Jong-un’s father.

His inauguration into World Leaders in Their Underpants is a significant step towards greater openness for North Korea, and will help counter the decades of isolationism that have shrouded the country in mystery like a trouser shrouds a leg.

The sovereignty of Tibet is a matter of serious debate. In 1951 the region was subsumed into the People’s Republic of China and their government was abolished soon after. The Central Tibetan Administration, based in India, is regarded as the Tibetan government in exile.

The Kalon Tripa, or Prime Minister of the Central Tibetan Administration is Lobsang Sangay, seen here in his underpants. The administration he now heads were founder members of the Unrepresented Nations and People’s Organisation, former members of which include East Timor, Latvia and Georgia, all of whom are now independent nations.

Tibet remains an autonomous region of China, but many inhabitants of the “roof of the world” look to the Dalai Lama for leadership. Despite being the figurehead of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama does not believe himself to be the rightful head of state. Thus it is that Lobsang Sangay lurks on the periphery of World Leaders in Their Underpants, awaiting a day when his nation may be granted independence.

The parliamentary republic of Kiribati won independence from the United Kingdom in 1979. Thanks to climate change the 33 atolls, spread over a million square miles, may not be around to celebrate their centenary in 2079.

Tong, seen here in his underpants, beat his brother Harry to the presidency in 2003. He is now charged with the task of seeking a new home for around 100,000 people who would become refugees if rising sea levels obliterated the Pacific islands. Given their uncertain future, it’s surprising to discover that they moved the international dateline in 1995 in order to be the first to arrive in tomorrow.

Even the flag of Kiribati is half sunk into the sea, picturing as it does a golden frigate bird soaring over a swelling sunlit ocean. One hopes the other heads of state Anote Tong will meet among the World Leaders in Underpants will be sympathetic to the hypothetical plight of his people.

In July 2011 we held a poll to decide who should be the 50th World Leader in Underpants. With 46% of the vote, Pope Benedict XVI beat off competition from Barack Obama (31%) and David Cameron (23%).

The United States and the United Kingdom have yet to join World Leaders in Their Underpants, but of the two, only Obama is getting a second chance. He now goes up against Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, and Kim Jong-un, Supreme Leader of North Korea.

VOTING IS NOW CLOSED – RESULTS BELOW

The chinchilla is a high altitude rodent found in the Andes and occasionally in low-altitude pet shops. Their soft fur and even colouration makes them popular for hats and other garments. Laura Chinchilla, seen here in here underwear, is the president of Costa Rica.

Switzerland has never been hailed as the Costa Rica of central Europe, but the Central American republic has been accorded the reverse accolade on account of its years of peace and prosperity. More recently, two former presidents have been imprisoned on corruption charges, which has shaken Costa Rica’s reputation for stability, but made them no less Swiss.

Costa Rica is defined in its constitution as a Roman Catholic country and Chinchilla has actively opposed moves towards secularism. She now joins World Leaders in Their Underpants as one of a growing number of Latin American women to be elected president. Here she can discover whether separation from ones outerwear helps or hinders in the separation of church from state.

Former coca farmer and trumpet player Evo Morales is the 80th President of Bolivia. Here he is in his underpants, holding aloft the photosynthesising organ of the much maligned coca plant.

Bolivia is named after Simon Bolivar, a world leader with the rare distinction of having been president of 4 countries, Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru, and Gran Columbia, the last of which encompassed a further three latter day nations, Columbia, Ecuador and Panama. What voluminous underpants he must have worn. Bolivia, meanwhile, now languishes under the intriguing official name of the Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia. Plurinationalism is recognition of the fact that a nation must embrace multiple people’s of diverse identity. Those leaders who crudely attempt to identify their nation with a single ethnic group would do well to take note, for in this respect, all modern nations are plurinational.

Evo Morales, for example, is Aymara, one of 34 indigenous ethnic groups that collectively make up more than half the population. He now joins World Leaders in Their Underpants, where he can share his coca leaves and give his contemporaries some insight into the workings of plurinationalism. Good luck, Evo.

who do you think you are to make fun on a man who leads more than 80 million people?

Although the question was targeted at my friend, it is ultimately me who drew and published the image, and I felt it deserved a full reply.

If you’ve been following World Leaders in Their Underpants, you’ll know that Meles Zenawi was not singled out for special treatment. But he’s right, I am making fun of him.

The question, however, pertains to my credentials, and I’ll be the first to confess that if I hadn’t embarked on the task of drawing every head of state in their underwear I wouldn’t have been able to name the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, let alone make fun of him. You could argue that this makes me particularly ill-qualified for the task. To my mind, however, this would be to miss the point of the whole endeavour.

It seems reasonable to assume that the questioner had not found my work funny, in which case, he already answered his own question. I hope, however, that people are enjoying my work, and if some of them are Ethiopian, that’s even better.

Former MP, Tony Benn, suggests 5 questions we should ask of people in power:

“What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?” If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.

To these very wise words, I would add a final question, that I’m sure the venerable Mr. Benn would have included had he only thought of it:

“What do you look like in your underpants?”

He didn’t think of it. And thus, it falls to me to answer the question. It’ll take me a while to answer them all, but while I’m busy with that, you can be making sure you can answer the other five.

One of Professor Gjorge Ivanov’s highest priorities since assuming office in 2009 has been to resolve the long-running dispute with Greece over the name of his country.

The republic declared independence in 1991, and despite having avoided the violence that marred much of the rest of Yugoslavia, they immediately got into hot-water with their neighbours over their name. There also happens to be a region of Greece called Macedonia, and this because of an ancient Greek kingdom, once considered to be the most powerful state in the world. Fearing some sort of revival of that vast empire stretching from the Mediterranean to the Himalayas, Greece withheld recognition until the latter-day Macedonians agreed to be saddled with the cumbersome official name of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia or FYROM.

Thus Gjorge Ivanov, in his fetching calf tassels, joins World Leaders in Their Underpants in his capacity as president of Only The Bits of Macedonia That Used to be in Yugoslavia and Definitely Not The Greek Bits (or OTBOMTUTBIYADNTGB). Hello, professor!