Election surprise in Czechoslovakia

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32777, 30 November 1971, Page 15

Election surprise in Czechoslovakia

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

PRAGUE, November 29. More than 99 per cent of the Czechoslovak electorate has voted in favour of the official candidates in the first General Election since the Soviet Union-led invasion in 1968.

Nominated by the Com-munist-dominated National Front, the candidates will sit on Federal, national, regional and local bodies. There were no alternative candidates on the ballot papers. According to the results of the two-day poll which ended on Saturday, 10,253,796 per: sons, or 99.45 per cent of the registered voters, participated in the polls. Of these, about 40,000 cast invalid ballots. The remainder voted 99.8 per cent in favour. Only about 56,000 did not participate. The nearly-perfect poll came as something of a surprise to foreign and Czechoslovak observers alike, in view of the frequent warnings by the regime throughout its intensive election campaign that "Right-wing, anti-Socialist and counterrevolutionary forces” were still active in the country,

It was officially to crush these elements that the armies of five Warsaw Pact countries invaded and occu-

pied Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968. Mr Alois Indra, a member of the Presidium and chairman of the Rederal Election Committee, commented today: “I admit that even for the committee this is a surprisingly good result.” Both participation and votes in favour were higher than in the last election in 1964. A poll should have been held again in 1968, but was postponed because of the invasion and ensuing unrest. The result of the poll would appear to further strengthen the position of the Communist Party First Secretary (Dr Gustav Husak), who has pursued an ortho-dox-moderate line since taking- over from the reformist, Mr Alexander Dubeck.

Some party officials round Dr Husak would like to see him take a tougher line against reformers. So far there have been large-scale purges of the party, Government, education, mass media, and the arts, but no outright political trials.