Moscow's Communists back Zyuganov, strive to win municipal, mayoral elections
MOSCOW. Dec 8 (Interfax) - The delegates to the Russian Communist Party's Moscow city report-and-election conference being held in Moscow on Saturday unanimously supported party leader Gennady Zyuganov and slammed party members who demanded his resignation at an alternative meeting the same day.
"We know that some non-partisan people have gathered in Izmailovo [district in Moscow] today at Kremlin political consultants' suggestions to start a campaign against Zyuganov and our party's Central Committee," Valery Rashkin, the first secretary of the Communist Party's Moscow city council and a State Duma deputy, said at the conference.
Rashkin recalled other attempts to split the Communist Party, noting that they all failed and inviting the delegates to express support for Zyuganov. None of the 204 delegates present in the hall voted against this proposal or abstained in an open ballot.
"Let's hold the 15th Communist Party congress decently not to spite the Kremlin but to promote our party's authority," he said.
In delivering his report lasting one and a half hours, Rashkin outlined the socioeconomic situation in the country, summarized the outcomes of the past elections to the State Duma, and set objectives for future elections.
"In the elections to the State Duma a year ago, Moscow gave 852,000 votes for the Communist Party, which makes more than 19% of the entire turnout, and so the Communists got six parliamentary mandates in the city," Rashkin said, adding that this was significantly more than in the 2008 elections.
Rashkin reminded the audience that municipal elections in the districts that were recently appended to Moscow are scheduled for 2013, elections to the Moscow City Duma for 2014, and Moscow mayoral elections for 2015 and insisted that the party should win all these elections.
