SOVIET POLLS

Grey River Argus, 14 December 1937, Page 5

SOVIET POLLS

ONLY TWO SEATS CONTESTED. OUT OF TOTAL OF 1,143. [Aus. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] MOSCOW, December 12. Crowds waited for the polling stations to open at six a.m. for Russia’s first general election. The votes are expected to total a hundred millions for the election of 569 members of the Council or the Union, and 574 members of the Council of Nationalities. These two chambers together, will form the 1 highest governing body under the i new constitution adopted on December 5, last year. There are 68 women candidates. Though voting is secret, the signing of ballot papers is permitted. However, as only two seats are contested out of a total of 1,143, a voter need only seal a paper in the envelope provided, and drop it into the box. The President of the Central Executive Committee, Kalinin, explaining the reason for the absence of contests, said: "Among us, if some candidates withdraw in favour of one, it is due to social kinship and community of political ideas.” Hundreds of thousands of electors, after discussion, decided to nominate one personally. ’ ALL THE VOTES FOR STALIN (Received December 13, 7 p.m.) MOSCOW, December 13. It is claimed that every eligible person, except those bedridden, voted at the capitals’s j-400 pon.ng stations. M. Stalin has receive one hundred per cent of the poll. Similar results are expected throughout the Soviet. The polling closed at midnight, when the counting began. TROTSKY NOT GUILTY! JUDGMENT OF INVESTIGATIONS. NEW YORK, December 12. The Investigating Committee in an eighty thousand word opinion, ac- 1 quitted Trotsky and his son, Sedov, holding they were not guilty of plotting and participating in assassinations! sabotage, diversionism, and restoration of capitalism. The committee alleged that the conduct of the Moscow trials violated the Soviet law in every important point.