Political parties in Kazakhstan are still in the beginning stages of development. Their formation started soon after the country's declaration of independence.

At the end of 1991, the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, which had been a regional branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, was dissolved. The Socialist Party, a successor of the old Communist Party, was formed at that time. However, the Socialist Party did not gain significant public support and soon became non-operational.

Analysing the development of political parties in Kazakhstan, one could argue that there are no real parties with broad-based support and realistic programme objectives which are led by recognisable, influential politicians. All existing parties simply represent small interest groups.

Some right-wing parties evolved from nationalistic movements, which, in turn, led to demonstrations against Moscow's interference in the local government in December 1986. Most such parties have a language issue as their major objective. For example, Kazakh nationalistic movements and parties such as Alash, Azat, and Zheltoksan claim to increase the role of the Kazakh language. There are a few Cossack and Slavic movements which also have ethnically based principles as their major objective (Slavic groups want an increased role of the Russian language, and Cossack groups have armament as a major objective). However, some of these parties have not been registered.

Soon after the old Communist Party was reorganised into the Socialist Party, some hard-line communists decided to organise a new Communist Party with its major objective being the restoration of the Soviet Union. This party has only about 5,000 members throughout the country.

Several political movements are registered and operating in Kazakhstan. One of them, the political movement Azamat, claims to be in opposition to the Government. Other political movements have ecological, cultural, and historical objectives.

There are nine officially registered political parties in the country. The largest democratic parties are the National Unity Party, the Democratic Party, the Co-operative Party, and the Renaissance Party.

There is no governing party in Kazakhstan with its own political programme and objectives; moreover, no powerful opposition exists in the country.

The Mazhilis, the lower chamber of the Parliament, was formed on a regional basis rather than on a party basis. So far, there are no party coalitions in either the Parliament or the Government.