List of political leaders who suspended the constitution

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

Suspended in full

• Joseph Arthur Ankrah (Ghana, 1966)
• Frank Bainimarama (Fiji, 2000)
• Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir (Sudan, 1989)
• Maurice Bishop (Grenada, 1979-1983; Suspended Constitution after bloodless ouster of former Prime Minister Gairy, but simultaneously enacted some rights protections under the The People's Laws 1979. Declared plans for Constitutional referendum were not carried out prior to Bishop's 1983 assassination.[1])
• Jean-Bédel Bokassa (Central African Republic, 1966)
• Sonthi Boonyaratglin (Thailand, 2006)
• Juan María Bordaberry (Uruguay, 1973)
• Pierre Buyoya (Burundi, 1987)
• Pedro Carmona (Venezuela, 2002 during a two-day coup)
• Lansana Conté (Guinea, 1984)
• Idriss Déby (Chad, 1990)
• Jorge Serrano Elías (Guatemala, 1993)
• Hossain Mohammad Ershad (Bangladesh, 1982)
• Henry George Grey, 3rd Earl Grey (New Zealand)
• Gyanendra (Nepal, 2005)
• Yahya Jammeh (The Gambia, 1994)
• Leabua Jonathan (Lesotho, 1970)
• Johnny Paul Koroma (Sierra Leone, 1997)
• Seyni Kountché (Niger, 1974)
• Efraín Ríos Montt (Guatemala, 1982)
• Pervez Musharraf (Pakistan, 1999 and then again in 2007)
• Henri Namphy (Haiti, 1988)
• Milton Obote (Uganda, 1966)
• Park Chung Hee (South Korea, 1971)
• Augusto Pinochet (Chile, 1973)
• Miguel Primo de Rivera (Spain, 1923)
• Sitiveni Rabuka (Fiji, 1987)
• Jerry Rawlings (Ghana, 1981)
• France-Albert René (Seychelles, 1977)
• Mustafa Ould Salek (Mauritania, 1978)
• 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. )

• Saw Maung (Burma, 1988)
• Sobhuza II (Swaziland, 1973)
• Abdel Rahman Swar al-Dahab (Sudan, 1985)
• Amadou Toumani Touré (Mali, 1991)
• Saye Zerbo (Upper Volta, 1980)
• Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq (Pakistan, 1977)

Suspended in part

• Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir (Sudan, 1999)
• Idi Amin (Uganda, 1971)
• Alberto Fujimori (Peru, April 1992-1993; Declared that "those parts of the Constitution that were not compatible with the reorganization of the central government", where hereby suspended[2])
• Indira Gandhi (India, 1975-1977; Indian Emergency)
• Adolf Hitler (Germany, 1933 under the Enabling Act)
• Abraham Lincoln (United States of America, 1861; suspended writ of habeas corpus during American Civil War)
• Omar Ali Saifuddin (Brunei Darussalam, 1962)