Supreme Soviet snub

Press, 26 October 1989, Page 8

Supreme Soviet snub

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The Soviet parliament snuooeo the Kremlin leadership yesterday by voting to eliminate special reserved seats for the Communist Party and other groups in future national and local elections. It also passed measures that would enable the 15 constituent Soviet republics to hold direct elections for their presidents, an idea criticised by the Kremlin leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.. The Supreme Soviet, or inner parliament, voted 254-85 with 36 abstentions to eliminate from the Soviet Constitution all mention of the seats elected by “public organisations” rather than by popular vote. These include 100 seats in the country’s 2250-member supreme legislature, the Congress of

People’s Deputies, set aside for members of the ruling Communist Party, including Mr Gorbachev. Other groups with reserved seats include trade unions, cultural unions and sports associations.

The vote elated liberal parliamentarians and clearly took senior leaders by surprise, including the First Vice President, Anatoly Lukyanov, who chaired the session.

“This was well beyond our expectations,” a liberal Moscow deputy, Sergei Stankevich, said after the vote. 'He said the decision, which must be approved by the larger Congress, meant the party “will now have to win its seats in an open electoral fight like everyone else.”

Deputies also passed by a wide

margin provisions leaving it up to the Soviet Union’s 15 constituent republics how they wished to organise elections to republic and local assemblies.

This left open the possibility that some republics could hold direct elections for president, as widely proposed in the three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The proposal for directly elected presidents was strongly criticised during the debate by Mr Gorbachev, who said it would create too great a concentration of power. Elections in the republics are due to take place between December and March.

The republican legislatures of Russia, the Ukraine and Byelorussia, will meet today to draw up their election laws.