After the sudden independence of Central Asian States (CAS) a question was raised about the political system which they would follow. Since these
states got independence without going through any political movement, debate and struggle so there could not emerge any consensus on political
models and structures. In the absence of any opposition, political power was transferred to former communist party leaders or secretaries in all
these states. These rulers run their respective states in old soviet dictator style and denied any space and democratic rights to their rivals and political opponents. To maintain their hold on the system these rulers also committed huge human right violations. Adoption of different types and versions of constitution failed to nurture multi party and fair political systems. Many opposition leaders of these states had to live in exile and state prisons. Elections, though conducted regularly after five or six years were not free and fair as reported by many independent observers.
According to many experts these elections were not more than  referendums technically designed to approve the authoritarian rules. Even after 23 years of independence the CASs are still being ruled by old soviet communist leaders and in same style without any real development of democratic systems. With this perspective, present paper is intended to analyse the political and democratic developments in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Further, emergence of different opposition parties and their failure, rulers of these states and their policies and programmes to maintain their grip on system have also been examined in this paper.
Zafar Javed Democracy in central asian states: perspective and development // The Russian Academic Journal, Vol. 26, Issue 4, 2013, pp. 0-0

After the sudden independence of Central Asian States (CAS) a question was raised about the political system which they would follow. Since these states got independence without going through any political movement, debate and struggle so there could not emerge any consensus on political models and structures. In the absence of any opposition, political power was transferred to former communist party leaders or secretaries in all these states. These rulers run their respective states in old soviet dictator style and denied any space and democratic rights to their rivals and political opponents. To maintain their hold on the system these rulers also committed huge human right violations. Adoption of different types and versions of constitution failed to nurture multi party and fair political systems. Many opposition leaders of these states had to live in exile and state prisons. Elections, though conducted regularly after five or six years were not free and fair as reported by many independent observers. According to many experts these elections were not more than referendums technically designed to approve the authoritarian rules. Even after 23 years of independence the CASs are still being ruled by old soviet communist leaders and in same style without any real development of democratic systems. With this perspective, present paper is intended to analyse the political and democratic developments in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Further, emergence of different opposition parties and their failure, rulers of these states and their policies and programmes to maintain their grip on system have also been examined in this paper.