"ELECTIONS" IN RUSSIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 299, 17 December 1937, Page 6

"ELECTIONS" IN RUSSIA.

: The largest election in history has just been completed. Soviet Russia now has an I All-Union Parliament, composed of two ! Houses, the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities. Together they have 1143 members, who represent approximately | 95 million voters. Early nest yeai% if the plan is carried out, the two Councils will meet and in joint session elect a "Praesidium," composed of 37 persons: a President (who will certainly be M. Stalin), 11 Vice-Presidents (one for each Republic of the Union), a Secretary and 24 ordinary members. Soviet Russia will then have a governmental system democratic in form. How democratic will it be in reality? The answer is indicated in the cabled statements that out of the 1.143 deputies elected, 855 are members of the Communist Party. The membership of the party, in comparison with the huge population, is small, and it might rtppear strange that party members should be so strongly preferred as candidates. According to the Constitution, the right to nominate candidates is "guaranteed to social organisations and societies of toilers, organisations of the Communist Party, trade unions, co-operatives, organisations of young people, cultural societies." But, according to "The Times" correspondent, writing in October, "even church congregations here ~nd there are claiming the right to nominate candidates. . . .

If tj>ia is so, they are not likely to succeed, for the Soviet Press explains that the 'impudence of such liberal ideas' is possible only among 'elass-aliens,'" and he added that the atmosphere was not favoui'able to open expression of views and canvassing for any but "approved candidates." The candidates "approved," it is evident, were those whose views were not likely to run counter to, or even to deviate slightly from, the Communist code. And, indeed, recollecting the fate of those persons who have offended the Communist leaders in the past, it is difficult to imagine that any man or woman would have the temerity to seek nomination on anything resembling an anti-Communist platforjn. Thus the value of the new Constitution and the Parliamentary form of government in Russia is at present inconsiderable. More than 1000 candidates, we are informed, were elected by t votes varying from 90 to 99.6 per cent of the .total votes polled. Such remarkable unanimity, Iso strongly reminiscent of the plebiscites in I ,-Nazi Germany, must make any democrat! [suspicious.