Now I know the odds are against him. I know the presidential despots of Tunisia and Egypt have been swept away. But 6/1 ($7.0) about Colonel Gadaffi still being in charge of at least part of Libya at the end of the year just seemed to good to me to resist. I mean I have, afterall, done well over the years backing Mugabe to cling on in Zimbabwe so I’m reluctant to abandon my principle of if in doubt back the dictator.

Here are the latest Crikey Indicators on the chances of various Middle East rulers still being in their countries come 31 December:

KHALIFA.GONE.DEC11 Khalifa B. S. Al Khalifa to no longer be Prime Minister of Bahrain before midnight ET 31 Dec 2011 – 59%

SALEH.GONE.DEC11 Ali Abdullah Saleh to no longer be President of Yemen before midnight ET 31 Dec 2011 – 80%

GADDAFI.GONE.DEC11 Muammar al-Gaddafi to no longer be leader of Libya before midnight ET 31 Dec 2011 – 84%

AHMADINEJAD.GONE.DEC11 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to no longer be President of Iran before midnight ET 31 Dec 2011 – 20%

KHAMENEI.GONE.DEC11 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to no longer be Supreme Leader of Iran before midnight ET 31 Dec 2011 – 20%

BOUTEFLIKA.GONE.DEC11 Abdelaziz Bouteflika to no longer be President of Algeria before midnight ET 31 Dec 2011 – 37.5%

The probabilities are the latest market prices from Intrade.