The first major drawback of political parties comes from the fact that most of them are oriented towards the political and economic elite of the country, not for the good of the general public, as claimed by these parties. For instance the Republican National Party of Kazakhstan (RNPK), is known as the Party of Kazkhegeldin, The former Prime Minister. Though this party is the opposition to the present political regime, it was created not for the benefit of common people but rather as a vehicle to project the personality of the former Prime Minister. Another elitist party is the Civil Party of Kazakhstan, which acts in the interests of major state enterprises and financial groups. Thus, it is clear that some political parties serve as strong tools in the hands of oligarchs who seek to attain influence and increase their personal welfare.It is not a secret that some political parties and their leaders are primarily concerned with the division of power and property among each other rather than with implementing their direct obligations. Moreover, some parties tend to abuse their authority, engage in unfair competition and falsify the information. "Otan", which is known to be a "pro-Presidential party", uses its authority in order to force some people to join its rows. So, the official statistics showing that the number of its members is close to 200 thousand people appears to be far from the reality. These facts undoubtedly exploit people's belief in the fair political system and consequently weaken it.
The second reason conducing to the weakness of political parties is the lack of financial support. The most burning issue of almost all parties, with the exception of Otan and RNPK, is the financial provision. For example, the Socialist and Social-democratic Parties have practically suspended all their activities since 1995 due to non-availability of funding sources. It is known that political competition and success of the particular party depends heavily on public relations, advertising, and polling, which in turn require good fundraising. Therefore, political parties, which are headed by the elite or act in the interest of some influential person or group of persons have more chances to survive and receive places in the Parliament, than those which are willing to protect the interests of common people, such as pensioners, working class, unemployed etc. Meanwhile in the other countries like Italy, Spain and even Russia, political parties are financed from the budget to ensure equal opportunities during the elections and in everyday activity.
Another important issue is that a lot of Kazakhstani political parties do not have clear-cut political programs, and even in case they have ones, they are seldom implemented in reality. The economic and political programs do not differ significantly from part to party, and usually represent only the decorative cover. The parties’ leaders are ready to promise “golden mountains” just to attract as many people as possible cause the only way to win elections for them is by building a broad political base. So, each party tries to develop attractive economic and political programs, in which it promises to create a truly democratic state, market economy, social partnership, equal opportunities for all people etc. A question arises then, why do they forget about their promises and freeze their activity as soon as they get power or become elected in the Parliament?
Finally, political parties are not a real force in Kazakhstan because of the legislative restrictions imposed on them by the government. Some people even believe that the government intentionally makes obstacles on the way of political parties in order to preserve the monopoly for the power. The “Law on Political Parties” has numerous drawbacks and to some extent even limits the rights and freedoms of political parties. The legislation establishes registration procedures that are very complicated and strict, so that a lot of parties cannot pass these barriers and remain illegal. Because the government has the opportunity to fully control the emergence and activity of the parties, it only tolerates the existence of those, not creating a serious challenge to its authority. That is why the majority of political parties in Kazakhstan are dependent on the State and there is no strong opposition in the country.
To summarize, presently the political parties do not have a real force in Kazakhstan. Although a considerable progress has been made since the early nineties, they still remain weak organizations because of imperfect legislation, corruption, extreme dependence on the State, financial difficulties and immaturity of parties themselves.
Bibliography
- Central Asian Journal of Management, Economy, and Social research; Almaty, January 2000.
- Andrey Chebotarev, “S chem idyom na vibory”, Continent magazine; Almaty, September 1999
- Lecture Notes of Dina Sharipova
Andrey Chebotarev, Continent magazine, p. 16
Central Asian Journal of Management, Economy and Social Research
Central Asian Journal of Management, Economy and Social Research