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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Kazakstan
Index
Economic and ethnic differentiation in Kazakstan has led to the
appearance of more than 2,000 social organizations, movements, political
parties, and social action funds across a broad political spectrum.
Although Nazarbayev prevented electoral participation by many opposition
parties, the formation and reformation of parties and coalitions have
occurred at a rapid pace in the postindependence years. In the
parliamentary election of December 1995, thirty parties and other
organizations registered candidates.
The President's Party
Significantly, the one type of party that has failed to thrive in
Kazakstan is a "presidential party" that would serve as a
training ground for future officials, as well as a conduit for their
advancement. Nazarbayev lost control of his first two attempts at forming
parties, the Socialists and the People's Congress Party (NKK). The latter
particularly, under the leadership of former Nazarbayev ally Olzhas
Suleymenov, became a center of parliamentary opposition. Nazarbayev's
third party, the People's Unity Party (SNEK), remained loyal to the
president, although it was unable, even with considerable government help,
to elect enough deputies to give Nazarbayev control of the 1994-95
parliament. SNEK formally incorporated itself as a political party in
February 1995.
Other Parties
With the exception of SNEK and some smaller entities, such as the
Republican Party and an entrepreneurial association known as For
Kazakstan's Future, most of Kazakstan's parties and organizations have
little or no influence on presidential decision making. Because
privatization and the deteriorating economy have left most citizens much
worse off than they were in the early 1990s, most of the republic's
organizations and parties have an oppositional or antipresidential
character.
The Communist Party of Kazakstan, declared illegal in 1991, was allowed
to re-register in 1993. Kazakstan also has a small Socialist Democratic
Party. Both parties made poor showings in the 1994 election, but two
former communist organizations, the State Labor Union (Profsoyuz) and the
Peasants' Union, managed to take eleven and four seats, respectively.
Nationalist Groups
At least four large Kazak nationalist movements were active in the
mid-1990s. Three of them--Azat (Freedom), the Republican Party, and
Zheltoksan (December)--attempted to form a single party under the name
Azat, with the aim of removing "colonialist" foreign influences
from Kazakstan. The fourth movement, Alash (named for the legendary
founder of the Kazak nation, as well as for the pre-Soviet nationalist
party of the same name), refused to join such a coalition because it
advocated a more actively nationalist and pro-Muslim line than did the
other three parties. In the March 1994 election, Azat and the Republicans
were the only nationalist parties to run candidates. They elected just one
deputy between them.
Four exclusively Russian political organizations in Kazakstan have
nationalist or federative agendas. These are Yedinstvo (Unity), Civic
Contract, Democratic Progress, and Lad (Harmony). Party registration
procedures for the 1994 election made places on the ballot very difficult
to obtain for the Russian nationalist groups. Although Lad was forced to
run its candidates without party identification, four deputies were
elected with ties to that party.
The Russian group most unsettling to the Nazarbayev government was the
Cossacks, who were denied official registration, as well as recognition of
their claimed status as a distinct ethnic group in the northeast and
northwest. Not permitted to drill, carry weapons, or engage in their
traditional military activities, Kazakstan's Cossacks have, in increasing
numbers, crossed the border into Russia, where restrictions are not as
tight.
Opposition Coalitions
In 1994 parliament's success at countering presidential power
encouraged the legislators, many of whom were connected with the former
Soviet ruling elite, to use their training in the political infighting of
Soviet bureaucracy to form effective antipresidential coalitions.
Ironically, these coalitions were the only political groupings in the
republic that transcended ethnic differences. The Respublika group was
elastic enough to contain both Kazak and Russian nationalists, and the
Otan-Otechestvo organization forged a coalition of Kazaks, Russians, and
even Cossacks who desired a return to Soviet-style political and social
structures.
Data as of March 1996
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