Three Kazakh opposition parties merge into one democratic party
The setting up of a United Democratic Party has been announced

12/24/2001
BBC Monitoring
Source: Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Almaty, in Russian 0726 gmt 24 Dec 01/BBC

Excerpt from report by Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency

Almaty, 24 December: Kazakhstan's three opposition parties - the Azamat (Citizen) Democratic Party, the People's Congress Party and the Republican People's Party (RPPK) - have announced about the setting up of a United Democratic Party (UDP).

The statement was made by these parties' representatives - Petr Svoik (Azamat), Gulzhan Yergaliyeva (People's Congress) and Amirzhan Kosanov (RPPK) - at a news conference in Almaty today.

The statement says that the decision to merge the parties was taken at a working meeting of the parties' representatives in Washington on 8-12 December.

In response to a question put by the Interfax-Kazakhstan news agency, Yergaliyeva said that the organizing committee of the new United Democratic Party was planning to hold a constituent congress in late January-early February 2002.

The three parties will hold meetings to elect their delegates to the congress.

Speaking about the structure and leadership of the UDP, the participants of the news conference said that a political council without a strong party leader was expected to be set up.

"This will be a party of a new type based on the Western model," Yergaliyeva noted.

It was announced at the news conference that the idea to set up the UDP had been backed by the leaders of the People's Congress and the RPPK, [respectively] Olzhas Suleymenov and Akezhan Kazhegeldin, who was the country's prime minister in 1994-97.

The founders of the UDP said that "the doors of the party were open for all".

The UDP, its founders think, should aim at speeding up political reforms in Kazakhstan to set up a "genuine democratic system" in the country based on the principles of self-government with a unicameral parliament, the number of seats in which should be increased considerably, and with a new constitution adopted through a referendum. At present, the country has a bicameral parliament with 116 deputies (77 in the Majlis [lower chamber] and 39 in the Senate [upper chamber]).

[Passage omitted: the new Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan public association, set up by young reformist businessmen and politicians aims at returning to power, while the UDP wants to set up democracy in Kazakhstan]

Svoik said that the UDP considered the DCK as its "natural ally" at the moment and it would support this association.

He thinks that the time of setting up of parties around individuals and their [parties] formation "from the top", - in particular, by the presidential administration, as it happened with the Otan [Fatherland] Republican Party, has ended in the social development of the country.