Were They Elected?

Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa on May 10, 1994.

While not elected for his first term in office, Truman famously won the 1948 election over Thomas Dewey.

Napoleon overthrew the unpopular Directory with a coup d'etat on November 9, 1799.

Gandhi's leadership in India was informal, as he was never prime minister.

The outgoing prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, advised the king to make Churchill the prime minister. Churchill would of course be elected later on.

Caesar was elected consul of Rome for the year of 59 BCE. He declared himself dictator ten years later.

Washington won an election that ran from December 15, 1788, to January 10, 1789.

Influential politicians pressured President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler Chancellor in 1932. Hitler's party, however, won 37% of seats (more than any other party) in the June 1932 election but failed to garner enough additional support to form a coalition government.

Not much interesting here... he was first elected in a massive upswing in popularity for the Liberal Party on October 19, 2015.

Nothing about this was democratic. He took power from another dictator in a coup d'etat.

Che Guevara has never been the leader of Cuba nor any other country.

Mussolini took power on October 27-28, 1922, from the March on Rome.

While Putin probably enjoyed a significant advantage being the Acting President and could benefit from state resources, the election was mostly legitimate.

Oliver Cromwell had dissolved the Rump Parliament and was put into power by his loyalists in the Council of Officers.

He won a fair election.