He Dissolved Parliament, Abolished the Court That Could Stop Him, and Then Wrote Himself Lifetime Immunity — All Inside One Constitution
Kazakhstan — Constitution Profile
| 📅 Current Constitution | August 30, 1995 — entered into force September 5, 1995 |
| 🏛️ Government | Presidential Republic |
| 🌍 Capital | Astana |
| 📄 First Constitution | January 28, 1993 — collapsed within two years |
| 👑 Founding President | Nursultan Nazarbayev — ruled 1991 to 2019 |
| ⚖️ Special Status Abolished | "Elbasy" (Leader of the Nation) — removed from constitution in 2022 |
In March 1995, a constitutional court in Kazakhstan made a ruling that would, within months, lead directly to its own abolition. It declared the 1994 parliamentary elections unconstitutional. That finding gave the sitting president the legal pretext to dissolve parliament, rule by decree, call two referendums in rapid succession, and emerge with a new constitution that concentrated power so completely in his own hands that critics eventually gave him a title that had not been used in Central Asia for centuries — and had it written permanently into the document itself.
The First Constitution Lasted Less Than Two Years — Because Two Groups Couldn't Agree on Who Should Run the Country
Kazakhstan adopted its first constitution as a sovereign state on January 28, 1993. It was, by most accounts, a document built on contradiction. The constitution-making process involved two primary groups: parliamentarians from the old Supreme Soviet who advocated legislative supremacy, and reformists led by President Nazarbayev who favoured a strong executive. The tension between these two visions resulted in a constitution fraught with internal contradictions. It established a Supreme Council as an oversight mechanism over executive authority — but never clearly resolved who actually had the final word.
The conflict between Nazarbayev and the parliament that followed was bitter and largely conducted through institutional maneuvering. In December 1993, the Supreme Soviet voted to dissolve itself, transferring all powers to the president until new elections could be held. Critics accused the president of engineering that dissolution from behind the scenes. Then in March 1995, the Constitutional Court ruled that the 1994 legislative elections had been held unconstitutionally, effectively voiding the parliament's mandate. Nazarbayev dissolved the Supreme Council — and this time, he moved quickly to ensure the institutional vacuum he was operating in became permanent.
Two Referendums in Four Months Extended His Presidency and Gave Him a Brand New Constitution
With parliament gone and the country operating under presidential decree, Nazarbayev moved with remarkable speed. In April 1995, a national referendum extended his presidential term — originally set to end in 1996 — to the year 2000. Then just four months later, on August 30, 1995, a second referendum approved an entirely new constitution that turned Kazakhstan into what analysts would later call a super-presidential republic. According to official figures, the new constitution was approved by 90 percent of voters, with turnout reported at 91 percent. The political opposition boycotted the referendum entirely; local observers claimed the results had been falsified.
The 1995 constitution was modeled substantially on France's Fifth Republic framework, introducing a bicameral parliament with a Senate and lower house. But the resemblance to France stopped there. The president was granted the right to dissolve parliament at will. And one of the most consequential results of the 1995 constitutional reform was the abolishment of the Constitutional Court — the very institution whose ruling had triggered the whole sequence of events — replacing it with a purely advisory Constitutional Council that Nazarbayev could, in practice, override. The court that had been a check on both the executive and the legislature was simply removed from the architecture of the state.
Over the Following Decade, He Rewrote the Rules of His Own Job — Repeatedly
The 1995 constitution was not a finished project for Nazarbayev — it was a starting point. In 1998, constitutional amendments extended the presidential term from five to seven years, raised the minimum age for presidential candidates to 40, and eliminated the upper age limit, which had previously been set at 65. In June 2000, the Constitutional Council made a ruling that Nazarbayev's current term was technically his "first" under the 1995 constitution — resetting the clock on whatever term limits remained. In May 2007, the presidential term was restored to five years, but the two-term limit was simultaneously lifted — for Nazarbayev personally, and only for him.
By 2010, the parliament granted Nazarbayev the formal title of Elbasy — meaning "Leader of the Nation" in Kazakh. The title was not merely ceremonial. It provided Nazarbayev and his family with lifetime immunity from criminal prosecution. It gave him the right to address the parliament, the government, and all state officials on matters of domestic and foreign policy at any time. It made insulting the president punishable by law. And it anchored all of these privileges directly in the constitutional text, making them as permanent as anything else in the document. A man who had already written himself unlimited terms in office had now written himself a title that would follow him even after he left the presidency.
He Won His Last Election With 97.7 Percent of the Vote
The electoral results throughout Nazarbayev's tenure reflected the system he had built. In the 1991 presidential election — the country's first — he appeared on the ballot without any opposition candidate and secured an overwhelming victory. International observers consistently found that subsequent elections failed to meet the standards of free and fair competition. At his last election in 2015, Nazarbayev won 97.7 percent of the vote, with turnout reported above 95 percent.
The constitutional architecture behind those numbers was not subtle. The president retained the right to dissolve parliament at will. The body charged with ruling on constitutional questions had been converted into an advisory council with no power to actually bind executive action. The ruling party Nur Otan dominated every chamber to the point where, after the 2007 elections, it won every single contested seat in the lower house — briefly producing what analysts described as a functional one-party state. Nazarbayev had, in his own phrase, an "economy first, then politics" approach to governance — and the political reforms that were supposed to follow the economic ones never quite arrived.
He Resigned in 2019 — Without Actually Leaving
On March 19, 2019, following unusually persistent protests across Kazakhstan's cities, Nazarbayev announced his resignation as president, citing the need for "a new generation of leaders." His designated successor, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the speaker of the upper house, was appointed acting president the same day. The capital city was renamed Nur-Sultan — after Nazarbayev himself — within hours of his announced departure.
What the resignation did not include was an actual exit from power. Nazarbayev retained his Elbasy title and its associated privileges. He remained lifelong chairman of the powerful Security Council, which coordinates national security and defence policy. He held lifelong membership of the Constitutional Council. He continued to lead the ruling party. Legal and constitutional amendments in 2007, 2010, and 2017 had together provided him with an unlimited number of terms in office, legal immunity, and immunity of his family's property — none of which disappeared when he signed the resignation decree. A president who had technically left office was still constitutionally embedded in every major institution of the state.
A Fuel Price Rise Started a Protest. The Protest Became a Crisis. The Crisis Changed Everything.
On January 2, 2022, protests began in the oil-producing city of Zhanaozen over a sudden sharp increase in liquefied gas prices. Within days they had spread to cities across the country, and the demands had shifted from fuel prices to something far older and broader: "Old man, go!" — a call for Nazarbayev to withdraw from public life entirely. It was a demand that would once have been literally unthinkable under the constitutional and legal protections surrounding him. Now it was being chanted in the streets of Almaty.
President Tokayev's response was severe. On January 7, he ordered security forces to "shoot to kill without warning," describing protesters as "bandits" and "foreign-trained terrorists." He invited the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization to deploy troops — around 2,500 soldiers, primarily Russian — to help stabilize the country. According to official figures, at least 238 people died during what Kazakhs now call Qandy Qantar, or Bloody January. More than 10,000 were detained. Independent investigators suggested the actual death toll may have been considerably higher. It was the worst violence Kazakhstan had seen since independence.
The Crisis Gave Tokayev the Leverage to Finally Dismantle Nazarbayev's Constitutional Legacy
Bloody January did something the previous three decades of managed politics had not — it gave Tokayev both the popular mandate and the political capital to move against Nazarbayev's network directly. Within days of the crisis beginning, Nazarbayev was stripped of his Security Council chairmanship. His nephew was fired from the Deputy Head position. In a June 2022 constitutional referendum, 56 amendments were made to 33 of the constitution's 98 articles — roughly one-third of the entire document. Nazarbayev's name was removed from the constitutional text entirely. His Elbasy title and its associated lifetime privileges — the immunity from prosecution, the right to address all state institutions — were abolished. In January 2023, Kazakhstan's Constitutional Court annulled the Law on the First President, formally stripping him of the last remaining legal protections.
In March 2026, Kazakhstan went further still, approving a new constitution by referendum with 87 percent support on 73 percent turnout. Critics noted, however, that the pattern of constitutional redesign under concentrated executive power had not changed — only who held that power had. The 2026 constitution abolishes the Senate entirely, creates a new unicameral Kurultai, reintroduces a vice presidency appointed by the president, and expands presidential control over judicial appointments. One legal analyst summarized the recurring dynamic plainly: Kazakhstan's constitutional history demonstrates a pattern where major constitutional redesign has consistently taken place under concentrated executive power — the names on the document change; the structure of dominance tends to remain.
Constitution at a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Independence from Soviet Union | December 1991 |
| First Constitution | January 28, 1993 (collapsed within two years) |
| Parliament Dissolved / Term Extended by Referendum | March–April 1995 |
| Current Constitution Approved by Referendum | August 30, 1995 (90% approval, opposition boycotted) |
| Constitutional Court Abolished | 1995 (replaced with advisory Council) |
| Presidential Term Extended to 7 Years | 1998 |
| Two-Term Limit Lifted (for Nazarbayev only) | 2007 |
| Elbasy ("Leader of the Nation") Title Codified | 2010 |
| Nazarbayev Resigned (but retained powers) | March 19, 2019 |
| Bloody January / CSTO Troops Deployed | January 2022 (238+ deaths, 10,000+ detained) |
| 2022 Referendum (56 amendments to 33 articles) | June 5, 2022 — Elbasy status abolished |
| New Constitution Approved | March 15, 2026 (effective July 1, 2026) |
📥 Read the Constitution of Kazakhstan
Read the complete, official text of the Constitution of the Republic of Kazakhstan:
👉 Read the Constitution of Kazakhstan — Full Text (Constitute Project)
A president who dissolved the court that could check him, then removed it from the constitution entirely. A resignation in 2019 that left him embedded in every major institution of the state. A fuel price protest in 2022 that finally broke the system he had spent three decades building. What part of Kazakhstan's story surprised you most? Tell us in the comments below.
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