[1] Other authoritarian regimes may also have multiple political parties which are nominally independent in order to give the appearance of political pluralism, but support or act in de facto cooperation with the government or ruling party.
Following the end of World War II, elections were held in areas already under Soviet influence who would become members of the Eastern Bloc, that while giving voters a choice would be seen as a step towards a totalitarian, Communist-led regime.
All legal parties and civic organisations were required to be members of the official Communist-dominated coalition.
However, during the fall of Communism, many hitherto subordinate bloc parties would begin to assert their independence and play a role in the democratisation process, while others would be unable to continue functioning either due to a loss of guaranteed yet artificial representation (granted to them by the ruling Communist Party), or due to the stigma of being associated with subservience to the Communists, and would either dissolve or fade into obscurity.
Non-party organisations such as the Free German Youth, Kulturbund and the Democratic Women's League of Germany broke their formal affiliation with the former ruling party, but only the Free German Youth still operates today.
During the Velvet Revolution, the parties became more assertive in pressuring for change, and transformed themselves for democratic politics.
The Christian democratic Czechoslovak People's Party remains a player in Czech parliamentary politics.
Occasionally, deputies from these groups (most notably the Catholic Znak) offered limited criticism of government policies.
A number of deputies from bloc parties also voted against the imposition of martial law in Poland, after which the Front of National Unity was replaced by the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth which included the same as well as additional member organisations.
In 1989, partly free elections were held in which Solidarity won an overwhelming majority of freely contestable seats- only 35% of the Sejm- while the PZPR and bloc parties were reserved 65% of the seats.
The Hong Kong pro-democracy camp has been establishing an electoral coalition in local level elections.
These helped the PRI government give the superficial appearance of a competitive democratic system.
In fact, both satellite parties fully supported the government and co-nominated the PRI candidates for the Presidency of Mexico until 1988.
ACT New Zealand, a right-wing libertarian party, runs its leader as a candidate in the Epsom electorate.
After the election, the ACT leader can then be offered a cabinet position, and the party can serve as a coalition partner in a National government.
Traditionally, legal political parties were required to follow the socialist and Arab nationalist or pan-Arabist orientation of the al-Assad regime.
The country operated under a one-party system under the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan (TDP) from independence until 2008.