Bhutan
On 21 April and 28 May, mock elections to the new 75-member National Assembly were held in two rounds in order to familiarize citizens with the first ever nationwide parliamentary elections scheduled for 2008. In the "primary round" (first round), Bhutanese over 18 years of age voted for the political party of their choice. In the "general election" (second round), the two political parties with the highest number of votes in the primary round, the Druk Yellow Party and the Druk Red Party, fielded their candidates. The Druk Yellow Party won a landslide victory, winning in 46 of the 47 constituencies. Bhutan will establish a bicameral parliament composed of the National Assembly and the National Council (upper chamber), based on the draft Constitution presented by the King Jigme Singye Wangchuk in March 2005. This constitution will be adopted by the new parliament in 2008 and replace a royal decree of 1953 giving the monarch absolute power.

Elections to the 25-member National Council are due to be held in autumn 2007. Once the National Council elections are announced, the nine-member Royal Advisory Council (the highest advisory body in the Kingdom) will be dissolved together with the current unicameral 150-member National Assembly.

Ecuador
A political crisis started in February 2007 when President Rafael Correa announced his intention to hold a referendum on the creation of a constituent assembly that would rewrite the Constitution. Fiftyseven parliamentarians who opposed the move were dismissed by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) on 7 March. They were replaced by substitute members on 20 March. The members who were removed from office subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court to annul the decision.

On 15 April 2007, 81.72 per cent of voters approved the referendum. The Constituent Assembly will be tasked with drafting a new constitution within 180 days, starting from November 2007. On 23 April, following an appeal lodged by the dismissed members of the Congress, the Supreme Court invalidated the TSE's decision and ordered that 50 of the 57 members be reinstated. On the following day, the Congress voted to dismiss Constitutional Court judges who were appointed in February 2006. The Congress insisted that the judges' four–year term of office had expired in January 2007, taking into account the term served by their predecessors, who themselves had been dismissed in April 2005. Human right activists criticized the Congress for undermining the independence of the judiciary based on its disagreement with the judicial decision.

Egypt
On 26 March 2007, a referendum approved 34 constitutional amendments with a 75.9 per cent affirmative vote. The amendments, which were passed by Parliament only a week before, granted the President and the ruling party the power to dissolve Parliament and empowered the Independent Commission to supervise elections. They also ban any religious-based political parties such as the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), an Islamic group established in 1928, from participating in elections. MB-backed candidates had won 88 of 454 seats in the 2005 elections to the People's Assembly. In the short time between the parliament's approval of the amendment and the referendum, many citizens were reportedly left uninformed. Although the official turnout was 27 per cent, many human rights activists said that the real figure should be much lower, considering the many empty polling stations.

Japan
On 14 May 2007, following the approval of the House of Representatives (lower chamber), the House of Councillors (upper chamber) approved a bill on the procedures for a referendum to amend the Constitution, which had been submitted by the ruling coalition in May 2006. The bill, which will come into force in three years, is considered as the first step to revise the 1947 Constitution. The current Constitution provides that constitutional amendments, initiated by Parliament by a two-third majority vote from each chamber, will need to be adopted by a referendum by a majority vote. However, no legislation had stipulated the procedure of the referendum. Under the new law on the referendum, Japanese citizens over 18 years of age are eligible to vote. The minimum turnout requirement to validate the referendum proposed by opposition members was not included.

Kazakhstan
On 22 May, President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law constitutional amendments, which had been adopted by an overwhelming majority at a joint session of both Houses of Parliament on 18 May. The amendments increase the membership of the Majlis (lower house) from 77 to 107, whose members will be elected under the party-list system. The Senate will have eight more members, bringing the total to 47. These members will be selected with the consent of the Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan, a group representing the various ethnic groups in Kazakhstan. The amendments also grant de facto an unlimited term of office to the incumbent President Nursultan Nazarbayev, to whom the two-consecutive-term limit will not apply. Mr. Nazarbayev, who has been President since 1991, has already been elected twice under the 1995 Constitution, which allowed only two consecutive terms. Following the 2007 amendments, he is allowed to run for the next presidential elections scheduled for 2012, for a third term under the same Constitution. The term will be shortened from seven to five years.

Mauritania
On 14 May, members of the National Assembly and the Senate were officially sworn in, thus reestablishing the Parliament, which had been suspended by the military coup in August 2005.

Roumania
On 19 April, Parliament voted to suspend President Traian Basescu from office for his "unconstitutional conduct" by 322 to 108 votes, thus paving the way for a referendum to impeach him. The President's suspension had been proposed by the leftist opposition Party of Social Democrats (PSD), which blamed him in particular for political instability and for putting pressure on the judiciary. The Constitutional Court considered this charge to be "groundless". Mr. Basescu belonged to the Democratic Party, which had left the ruling Justice and Truth Alliance in early April 2007. Analysts considered the impeachment move part of the ongoing political struggle in Parliament.

In the referendum held on 19 May 2007, Romanians rejected the proposal to impeach the President by a 74.48 per cent vote. Of the 18 million registered voters, 44.35 per cent turned out at the polls. On 23 May, the Constitutional Court reinstated Mr. Basescu as President. Mr. Nicolae Vacaroiu, who had served as acting President, resumed the post of Senate President.

thailand
On 26 April 2007, the Constitutional Drafting Council (CDC), appointed by the Constitutional Drafting Authority, itself established by the military junta known as the Council for National Security (CNS), presented the first draft of the new constitution. Among other provisions, it stipulates that the new 160-member Senate would be appointed by the King, and should not be directly elected as was the case between 2000 to 2006. The draft also proposes to reduce the statutory number of members of the House of Representatives from 500 to 400; of whom 80 would be elected under the proportional representation system. The CDC is due to present the final draft constitution on 6 July. It will need to be adopted by a referendum scheduled for 19 August 2007.