Kazakhstan 1995
The constitution of Kazakhstan adopted in 1995 grew out of an institutional crisis that developed between the legislative and judicial branches. In March 1995, the Constitutional Court ruled that the 1994 elections to the Kazakh parliament had violated the "one person, one vote" provision of the 1993 constitution and that the parliament, therefore, had never existed. President Nazerbaev attempted to veto this decision, but when the court persisted, he used the opportunity to call a referendum extending his term of office to 2000 and ruled by decree until the adoption of a new constitution in August.
President Nazerbaev controlled the process for drafting the new Kazakh constitution; there were neither negotiations about the process nor an interim constitutional arrangement. On May 22, 1995, Nazerbaev appointed an Expert Consultative Council, consisting of nine bureaucrats and legal specialists and chaired by Nazerbaev, to draft a new constitution with a deadline of June 10, 1995. Little is known about the process by which this group drafted the constitution. No mediators were involved in the drafting process, although French and Russian experts served as advisors to the drafting group. Nazerbaev introduced the draft text on June 30 at a session of the advisory assembly he created after dissolving the parliament. A one-month period was set aside for public comment on the draft. The comments received included a strong critique signed by six of the ten members of the Constitutional Court. At the end of the discussion period, Nazerbaev met again with his experts to make changes to the draft, which included the replacement of the Constitutional Court with a Constitutional Council. The final draft was published on August 1, 1995.
Voters ratified the constitution in a referendum held on August 30, 1995. Ratification required a simple majority of those voting, provided that turnout exceeded 50%. The official results indicated that 89% voted in favor of the new constitution, on turnout of 90.51%, although opposition groups claimed that no more than 34% of the electorate actually voted.