Despite presidential pledges to expand opportunities for the development of parties, Kazakhs seeking to register new political parties are more often than not rejected, repeatedly.
Article 23 of the Kazakh Constitution guarantees citizens the right to the freedom of association. โHowever, in practice, we have encountered a situation where this right has become virtually unattainable,โ Meiram Kazhyken, leader of the unregistered YNTYMAQ political party, wrote in a recent appeal to Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Kazhyken recounted that YNTYMAQ had twice submitted documents to register as a political party, and twice been refused. He wrote that the refusals were โbased on easily rectifiable remarks.โ The group, he said, then turned to established a public association โ โULT YNTYMAวฆYโ โ โas an alternative form of participation in public lifeโ and met with 22 refusals.
In a March 2022 speech โ two months after more than 230 people were killed during widespread unrest in early January โ Tokayev unveiled his grand plan for a โNew Kazakhstan.โ He p
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