KAZAKHSTAN’S COMMUNIST PARTY FACES BAN.

The General Prosecutor of Kazakhstan has requested the Justice Ministry to declare the country’s Communist party an anti-constitutional organization, revoke its legal registration, and suspend the party’s activities. The General Prosecutor cited the official goals of the Communist party — restoring the USSR and socialist ownership of the means of production — as incompatible with Kazakhstan’s constitution and laws. He recommended that any reregistration of the party be made contingent on its bringing the party’s program and bylaws into compliance with Kazakhstan’s constitutional and legal order. (Interfax, April 20, citing Kazakhstanskaya pravda, April 19)

The Prosecutor’s request follows a series of poorly attended communist rallies in several cities last month in support of the Russian Duma’s March 15 resolution which invalidated the dissolution of the USSR. Kazakhstan’s Communist party did poorly in the parliamentary elections last November and December. The party, whose membership is primarily ethnic Russian, elected Kazakhstan’s former Supreme Soviet Chairman (until 1994), Serikbolsyn Abdildin, as party leader at its recent congress. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbaev, on whom any decision on the party’s fate probably rests, is himself a former party leader who embraced reform.

Separation of Powers, Dushanbe-Style.