TURMOIL IN THE EAST BLOC : Czech Communists Seek National Election to Choose Next President : East Bloc: The party hopes to block opposition leader Vaclav Havel. The call for a vote is seen as a tactical move.

This country’s rapidly developing politics took a new and ironic twist Tuesday as Communists called for a national presidential election in a last-ditch attempt to block the rise of their chief opponent.

For the last three weeks, the Czechoslovak Communists have been forced out of one position of power after another by the strength of opposition demonstrations. On Sunday, they lost control of the government, and hard-line Communist President Gustav Husak resigned.

With the presidency open, playwright Vaclav Havel, leader of the opposition group Civic Forum, was nominated for the job. But to gain the presidential palace, Havel must win election in the Federal Assembly, the nation’s Parliament, which is still controlled by loyal Communist deputies.

Communist control of the Assembly has now led to a standoff. The Communists are, for now, unwilling to instruct their deputies in the Assembly to vote for Havel. At the same time, they dare not elect anyone else, for fear of setting off another round of massive demonstrations.

Behind closed doors, Communist leaders, members of the opposition and other Czechoslovak political figures have been trying to negotiate a way out of the impasse. The proposal to hold a direct, nationwide election rather than a vote in Parliament appears to be a way for the Communists to increase pressure in those negotiations to make Civic Forum back down and accept a compromise candidate.

Communist leaders spent the day trying to ratchet the pressure higher. The nation faces a “constitutional crisis,” Politburo member Vaclav Mohorita said at a press conference Tuesday.

At the same time, the Communists moved to bolster their public credibility by once more punishing hard-liners who are being blamed for the police attack on student demonstrators last month that sparked this country’s peaceful revolution.

The Assembly voted to expel from its Presidium seven hard-liners, including former Communist Party boss Milos Jakes and former ideology chief Vasil Bilak, one of the officials most closely linked with the 1968 Soviet invasion that crushed Czechoslovakia’s last re form movement.

The call for a national presidential election is tactically clever for the Communists, allowing them to adopt the mantle of defenders of democracy.

“If we want democracy, then it is the right of every citizen to share in all public affairs,” Communist deputy Vlastimil Barus argued as he supported the call for a national election in the Assembly meeting Tuesday.

The issue also underlines the degree to which Civic Forum and its supporters have been forced to use non-democratic means to achieve the eventual goal of greater democracy here. Power in Czechoslovakia has shifted dramatically, but not through elections; voting for Parliament will not be held until the spring or early summer.

Instead, the Communists have been forced to yield power because of massive street demonstrations, and a new government has been established as a result of back-room negotiations among key political figures.

Havel and his supporters are pushing for elections before June. But a national election right away would put them at a great disadvantage.

Civic Forum is quite popular in the country. A poll aired on Czechoslovak state television Tuesday night showed 76% approval for Civic Forum and only 16% approval for the Communists.

But Havel himself is not very well known outside opposition circles and, as the son of a wealthy Prague family, might not be popular nationally. Also, the Communists are far better organized than Civic Forum, which has only been in existence for a little more than two weeks. Civic Forum has its chief strength here in the capital and is far weaker in provincial areas.

Finally, fighting a presidential election campaign would distract Civic Forum from its chief priority, preparing for the parliamentary elections.

On Tuesday, Civic Forum leaders rejected the proposal for a national election. The idea is “enticing,” the group said in a statement, but it would divide the country further at a time when unity is needed and would leave Czechoslovakia without a chief of state for too long.

“We ask you to beware at this moment of all suggestions that might seem democratically enticing but which, in their final consequences, are more dangerous for democracy,” the organization said.