The 18th Congress of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan took a decision to rename the Communist Party as the Socialist Party and split from CPSU. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the party chairman, resigned when he became the first President of Kazakhstan in 1991. Dissatisfied members of the old Communist Party recreated the Communist Party of Kazakhstan in October 1991 at the 19th Congress of the party. The QKP was officially registered on 27 August 1998. The Communist Party of Kazakhstan has a well-established party structure with offices in all of the oblasts. The QKP was estimated to have around 70 thousand members. QKP largely appeals to above-middle age segment of the population especially in Urban areas who have a strong nostalgia for Soviet times. The leader of QKP was Serikbolsyn Abdildin, a respected, old generation politician in Kazakhstan. In the mid 1990's, the QKP participated in opposition coalition movements "Azamat" and "Pokolenie". In 1996, CPK initiated unregistered "National-Patriotic Movement-Republic". In February 1998, it joined the opposition bloc "People’s Front of Kazakhstan". The party became split on 13 April 2004, when a group led by Vladislav Kosarev started accusing party First Secretary Serikbolsyn Abdildin of accepting money from questionable sources. The splinter party, the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan, initially failed to meet 50,000 membership requirement to be officially registered but is now represented in the legislature. At the last legislative elections, 19 September and 3 October 2004, an alliance of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan and the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan won 3.4% of the popular vote and no seats. At 4 December 2005presidential elections, Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan and the Naghyz Ak Zhol Party formed a coalition movement, For a Just Kazakhstan and supported Zharmakhan Tuyakbay as presidential candidate. Party activities were suspended in 2012 by a regional court because of alleged cooperation with the banned party Alga! which has links to fugitive politician Mukhtar Ablyazov. The party was banned in 2015 by the Almaty city court because the number of party members was below the legal number of 40,000. The sentence was denounced as politically motivated by the party leaders, and was condemned by the Communist Party of Greece, the Russian Communist Workers' Party and the Communist Party, Turkey.
