New Opposition Party Fights for Registration of Rivals

The National Social Democratic Party, NSDP, call on the Kazak government to make it easier for political parties to officially register is a promotional stunt designed to attract other parties to merge with it, according to NBCentralAsia political analysts.



The NSDP, who registered on January 25 this year, released a statement on February 6, expressing its “concern at unfounded delays in the process of registering Alga! and Atameken”.



The centre-right party, Atameken, has not heard back about its request for official recognition, while Alga!, a radical opposition party, was denied registration last August.



All political parties in Kazakstan must have over 50,000 proven members to win a space on polling cards. Majilis Jarmahan Tuyakbay, head of the NSDP and former parliamentary speaker, said last week that this rule violates people’s right to participate in politics.



Yet some analysts suggest that NSDP is simply lobbying for the interests of other parties in order to gain allies for a potential political merger.



NBCentralAsia analyst Eduard Poletaev said, “The NSDP leadership clearly understands that if two or more parties [gain official registration], it will give the opposition more alternatives.”



A trend for party coalitions was set when the presidential party, Nur Otan, merged with supporters Asar, Agrarian and Civic last December, almost doubling their members to 960,000 as a result.



Poletaev suggests that Kazakstan’s party system will probably continue in this vein with more mergers expected in the future.



But despite NSDP’s efforts, political scientist Dosym Satpaev doubts they will be able to form a strong opposition. “The NSDP cannot compete with Nur Otan. Most probably, they will be [left out in the cold] during parliamentary elections in [2009],” he said.



Satpaev thinks the NSDP’s statement is a bid for publicity. “The Social Democratic party is new and needs to advertise itself, so it is demonstrating significant creative potential and presenting new ideas,” he added.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)