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MOSCOW, May 26 (Xinhua)
The Union of Right Forces (SPS), the largest liberal political
organisation in Russia, was transformed into a full-fledged political
party at its congress on Saturday.
During the congress, delegates from SPS's nine small organisations,
elected Boris Nemtsov, who heads the SPS faction in the State
Duma, as leader of the new SPS party, outstripping his rival Alexei
Kara-Murza.
Nemtsov, former deputy prime minister under Boris Yeltsin, won
237 votes to gain the post of chairman of the Federal Political
Council of the party, who will conduct most of the everyday bureaucratic
and political work.
The delegates also adopted the charter of the new party, as well
as some key documents on the party's priorities, its foreign policies
and attitude toward the government.
The transformation into a party will help the SPS to survive
if parliament passes a law regulating political parties, which
is designed to limit the number of parties by permitting only
national parties with substantial membership to participate in
elections.
Formed in the run-up to the parliamentary elections of 1999,
the SPS was a broad coalition of nine small members and included
all of Russia's liberals, except for Grigory Yavlinsky and his
Yabloko party.
All nine organisations have disbanded in the past few weeks to
allow their members to join the ranks of the new party.
According to the charter adopted recently, the SPS Party will
seek to facilitate the creation of civil society and a state governed
by the rule of law in Russia.
It will also faciliate consolidation of political stability,
the maintenance of law and order, boosting of economic growth
and enhancement of democracy.
The emblem of the Union of Right-Wing Forces will become the
emblem of the new political party. Its anthem will be 19th century
composer Mikhail Glinka's Patriotic Song.
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