Johanna Popjanevski - The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst

20Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 12 December2007In 2004, it received over 60% of votes, while its rivalAk Zhol won 12%. In 2006, Nur Otan merged withthe Asar political party and a number of othersmaller parties, increasing its level of support inparliament to 70%. Asar was controlled byNazarbayev’s daughter Dariga, but she wasremoved from the party’s leadership positionshortly before parliamentary elections in August2007. Nur Otan then unified with two other largepolitical parties, the Civic Party and the AgrarianParty. Nur Otan membership mostly includes civilservants from all levels of the government. Tofurther centralize the party system, Nazarbayevinitiated constitutional reforms that allowed him torun for president for an unlimited number of times.These constitutional changes in 2007 were followedby early parliamentary elections entirely based onparty lists. The elections secured Nur Otan 88% inthe parliament and made it the only political partyrepresented in the parliament, clearly transformingKazakshtan from a somewhat political pluralism toa one party system.The Tajikistan People’s Democratic Party (PDP)formed by Emomali Rakhmon in 1998 has beenrepresenting an absolute majority of the parliamentand government despite the Islamic opposition’sright for a 30% quota established in the powersharing agreement in 1997. With the 2005parliamentary elections, the PDP acquired anabsolute majority in the parliament, depriving anyother political party of forming a parliamentarybloc. Rakhmon was not able to openly suppress theIslamic Renaissance Party (IRP) due the popularityof Islam in Tajikistan. Instead, he agreed to allowthe IRP some public appearance and theparticipation of its main leaders in the economicprocess. Today, the IRP and other political partieshave the ability to gather and hold meetings, butlack access to public positions.Amid competing economic interests andpolitical power among state institutions andpresidents’ family members, Uzbek and Kyrgyzleaders lacked a vertical power structure thatwould work for the benefit of the ruling regime.Due to the confrontation between formalgovernment institutions and informal networksamong ruling elites, both Uzbek PresidentKarimov and his Kyrgyz counterparts sufferedfrom low popularity among governmentmembers and the masses.