In fact, the guide does better than that; he produces what seems to be the whole national directorate.

Ortega defeated Ruiz in the race for party secretary general and the former president's so-called traditionalist wing also walked away with 11 seats in the 15-member national directorate.

"This is an extraordinary political investment," said Carlos Nunez Tellez, a member of the nine-man Sandinista national directorate that rules Nicaragua.

The economic hard-liners have already moved into a commanding position on the party's national directorate after balloting last month.

"The national directorate of the party could have taken a different posture as relates to all of this," Mr. Alvarez said in an interview at City Hall here.

In Prague he became involved with the Betar movement, and in 1932 he joined the national directorate of the Polish branch of the movement.

Having joined the General Zionists, he became a member of the organisation's world and national directorates.

Li Causi became a member of the national directorate of the PCI that was reinstated on August 29, 1943, in Rome.

"If electricity is privatized," responded Gabriel Portillo, 40, a member of the national directorate of the electrical union, "electricity will be like any other product on the market."

Along with Fabius, he then resigned from the party's national directorate in June 2007.