List of political leaders who suspended the constitution

The following heads of government or heads of state formally suspended provisions of the country's constitution while in office.

Suspended in full

Name	Country	Year	Reason
Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey	New Zealand	1848	The constitution put in place by the colonial office in London put all power in the hands of the small settler population. Grey suspended the constitution rather than risk all-out war with the much larger native Māori population.
Miguel Primo de Rivera	Spain	1923
Alexander I of Yugoslavia	Kingdom of Yugoslavia	1929-1931	Assassination in the National Assembly led to dictatorship due to political instability.
Ion Antonescu	Romania	1940–1944
Joseph Arthur Ankrah	Ghana	1966
Jean-Bédel Bokassa	Central African Republic	1966
Milton Obote	Uganda	1966
Leabua Jonathan	Lesotho	1970
Park Chung Hee	South Korea	1971
Ferdinand Marcos	Philippines	1972	Marcos claimed of an attempted Communist takeover of the government which he was compelled to suspend the 1935 Philippine Constitution and placed the Philippines under Martial Law.
Augusto Pinochet	Chile	1973
Sobhuza II	Swaziland	1973
Juan María Bordaberry	Uruguay	1973
Seyni Kountché	Niger	1974
Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq	Pakistan	1977
France-Albert René	Seychelles	1977
Mustafa Ould Salek	Mauritania	1978
Maurice Bishop	Grenada	1979–1983	The Constitution was suspended following the bloodless ouster of former Prime Minister Gairy, yet simultaneously some rights protections were enacted under The People's Laws 1979. The declared plans for a Constitutional referendum were not carried out prior to Bishop's 1983 assassination.
Saye Zerbo	Upper Volta	1980
Jerry Rawlings	Ghana	1981
Hossain Mohammad Ershad	Bangladesh	1982
Efraín Ríos Montt	Guatemala	1982
Lansana Conté	Guinea	1984
Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab	Sudan	1985
Sitiveni Rabuka	Fiji	1987
Pierre Buyoya	Burundi	1987
Saw Maung	Burma	1988
Henri Namphy	Haiti	1988
Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir	Sudan	1989
Idriss Déby	Chad	1990
Amadou Toumani Touré	Mali	1991
Jorge Serrano Elías	Guatemala	1993
Yahya Jammeh	Gambia	1994
Johnny Paul Koroma	Sierra Leone	1997
Denis Sassou-Nguesso	Republic of the Congo	1997–2002	According to the United States State Department: "[T]he Sassou regime [...] announced that a constitutional convention would finalize a draft Constitution. However, the eruption in late 1998 of fighting between Sassou's government forces and a pro-Lissouba and pro-Kolelas armed opposition disrupted the transition to democracy. [...] A new Constitution was [...] approved by the people of Congo in a national referendum in January 2002."
Pervez Musharraf	Pakistan	1999, 2007
Frank Bainimarama	Fiji	2000
Pedro Carmona	Venezuela	2002	See Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002.
Gyanendra	Nepal	2005
Sonthi Boonyaratglin	Thailand	2006
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (headed by Mohamed Hussein Tantawi)	Egypt	2011	During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011

Suspended in part

Name	Country	Year	Reason
Abraham Lincoln	United States	1861	The writ of habeas corpus was suspended during American Civil War.
Adolf Hitler	Nazi Germany	1933–1945	See Enabling Act of 1933.
Omar Ali Saifuddien III	Brunei	1962
Idi Amin	Uganda	1971
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman	Bangladesh	1975	Declared himself president for life.
Indira Gandhi	India	1975–1977	See Indian Emergency Disputed - This was done per provision(s) (Article 352) of the Indian Constitution, which then permitted the declaration of Emergency on the grounds of 'internal disturbance'. Later, the reasoning provided has been challenged as being dubious. The grounds for declaration of emergency under Article 352 was amended in 1978 from 'internal disturbance' to 'armed rebellion'.
Alberto Fujimori	Peru	1992–1993	Fujimori declared that "those parts of the Constitution that were not compatible with the reorganization of the central government" were suspended.
Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir	Sudan	1999

See also

• Constitutionalism
• Constitutional economics
• Rule according to higher law