"The congress has begun; it is attended by 171 delegates out of the 273 delegates sent by the party to the congress. Our congress is legally valid," a spokesperson for the congress' press service told RIA this morning.
During a break in the session, going on behind closed doors, the number of the attendees was recounted. The verified figure is somewhat lower, 146, but this is still enough for a quorum.
A careful check has revealed that the number of delegates elected to the congress in accordance with the accepted rules is 262, not 300, reports Tatyana Astrakhankina, expelled from the Central Committee of Gennady Zyuganov's KPRF.
Zyuganov's congress also claims it has a quorum and that it is the only valid KPRF forum.
Addressing the gathering, Vladimir Tikhonov, Governor of the Ivanovo Province who was elected two days ago as leader of the anti-Zyuganov Communist Opposition, proposed amendments to the party's charter that would reduce party leadership to two terms. "The lack of such a provision has led to the usurpation and monopolization of power by its [the party's] former leadership," Mr. Tikhonov was quoted by the press service as saying.
According to Communist Opposition spokespeople, relevant amendments to the charter have been adopted already.
The organizers of the alternative forum put its secrecy down to security concerns, with Mr. Zyuganov's associates having declared a war on the intra-party Opposition.
"We do expect to be recognized as [Russia's] only Communist organization with long-term prospects," Valery Knysh, First Secretary of the KPRF's Khabarovsk regional branch, told the media.
