Soviet Communist Party Reneges on Vow, Handpicks 100 for Seats in Parliament

The Communist Party leadership today went back on its promise of multiple-candidate elections for Parliament by choosing all 100 candidates for the party’s 100 seats in the new Parliament.

A historic political reform passed into Soviet law Dec. 1 said “conditions would be created for nomination of an unlimited number of candidates” for the Congress of People’s Deputies.

Two-thirds of the 2,250 deputies are to be elected by the general public on March 26. The other third are to be chosen by certain organizations, including the Communist Party, which has the right to choose 100 deputies.

The election reform did not say whether the party members would vote directly on multiple candidates for their seats, and Kremlin watchers were waiting for today’s plenum to find out.

The Tass press agency reported that party members suggested 31,500 nominees, but these were winnowed down and finally just 100 were chosen by the 12-member ruling Politburo. Those 100 candidates were nominated by the party’s 300-member Central Committee today, Tass said.

But rank-and-file party members won’t have the chance to vote on the party’s candidates, Tass said. Only party leaders will cast ballots in a special meeting March 15 and 16, and they will not have a choice of candidates.

Still, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev told the Central Committee he expects a variety of political platforms to emerge in the public campaign. Tass said Gorbachev offered a draft platform to the plenum today, but details were not released.

“The Soviet people are entitled to know the objectives and tasks formulated by the party for the immediate future, and the platform it takes to elections,” Gorbachev said.

“We should proceed from the premise that the other social organizations will come to the elections with their own campaign documents,” and individual candidates can also offer their views, Gorbachev said.