TURMOIL IN THE EAST BLOC : Yugoslavia Party Ready to Risk Ballot Box

The Yugoslav Communist Party published a draft declaration Friday saying that it is ready to give up guaranteed power and compete with other parties in elections next year.

It also called for a new constitution guaranteeing market-oriented economic reform, respect for human rights and an independent judiciary.

“The end to the authoritarian socialism has come,” the declaration said.

The document, prepared for a national party congress next month and published in the daily paper Borba, appeared to be Yugoslavia’s reply to the wave of democratic change sweeping Eastern Europe.

“The Communist Party of Yugoslavia supports freedom of assembly, speech and all other civil liberties, regardless of political convictions of individuals,” it said.

Political “associations, movements or parties will depend on the will of the citizens, whose freedom of choice must be guaranteed by the constitution,” it went on.

It said that the Communist Party will relinquish its power monopoly and participate, along with other parties, in “free, direct and secret elections.”

“We are changing all of this now in order that tomorrow will not be too late for socialism in Yugoslavia,” the declaration said. It added that the changes should be accomplished within six months after the party congress.

Until now, the Communist leadership of Serbia, the country’s largest republic, was the staunchest opponent of Western-style government in Yugoslavia. But at its convention Friday, Serbian Communists appeared to have softened their stance.

Communists and Serbian authorities “have no reason or wish to impede administratively the establishment of (independent) political parties” in the republic, Bogdan Trifunovic, the region’s party chief, said in his keynote address.