New Opposition Party Set Up In Kazakhstan
September 11, 2006
Zharmakhan Tuyakbai (file photo) (RFE/RL)
The National Social Democratic Party held its founding congress on September 10 in Almaty and elected Zharmakhan Tuyakbai as its chairman.
The new political grouping has yet to obtain official registration from the government.
Addressing a crowd of nearly 2,500 supporters on September 10, Tuyakbai said his party would work with the For a Just Kazakhstan democratic political movement against the government of President Nursultan Nazarbaev.
He said the National Social Democratic Party would seek a freeze on land privatization, free higher education for all, and a lowering of the retirement age.
Tuyakbai -- himself one of the co-leaders of For a Just Kazakhstan - won nearly seven percent of the votes in last year's presidential polls.
He was a close associate of Altynbek Sarsenbaev, the Naghiz Ak-Zhol opposition party leader who was murdered in February.
(Interfax-Kazakhstan, APN-Kazakhstan)