Voters Spurn Communists in Lithuania

Lithuanian voters gave the Communist Party an even more thorough thrashing than expected in the Soviet Union’s first free multi-party elections in 70 years, according to preliminary results announced here Sunday.

The vote on Saturday, as expected, turned into an overwhelming mandate for the republic to seek independence from Moscow. But the anti-Communist backlash was so severe that even many candidates of the party’s reform faction, which also backs independence, were defeated.

If confirmed in an official count expected to be announced today, the preliminary results mean it is virtually certain that Communists will represent a minority in the newly elected republican Parliament--another first for any of the 15 constituent Soviet republics.

Candidates backed by the Sajudis popular reform movement won 72 out of 90 seats in which there was a clear result, according to a count based on reports by Sajudis observers and local election committee representatives.

That figure already assures the Sajudis platform of a majority in the republic’s 141-seat legislature--even though the races in 45 other constituencies will require runoffs and the results in six more were voided pending new elections.

Of the 72 Sajudis-backed winners, 46 ran as nonpartisan candidates, 13 are members of the reform faction of the Lithuanian Communist Party, nine are Social Democrats, two Christian Democrats and two Greens.

Sajudis is not registered as a political party itself, but it acted as an umbrella group, endorsing candidates who support its drive for independence.

Two more nonpartisan candidates won their districts without Sajudis support, as did nine more reform Communists and seven members of a conservative Communist faction that has retained its ties to Moscow and favors remaining a part of the Soviet Union. The conservative Communists, known euphemistically here as the “midnight party,” were the only organized group in the campaign that did not support Lithuanian independence.

“These results are of extreme importance and showed the Lithuanian people’s trust in Sajudis,” commented Vytautas Landsbergis, chairman of the movement and one of the clear winners in Saturday’s balloting.

“They show that the statehood and independence of Lithuania are not merely in the indefinite future, but are an attainable goal this year,” he told reporters at a press conference here.

Of the 45 districts in which no candidate won more than 50% of the vote, Sajudis candidates will be in 38 of the runoffs, scheduled in two weeks. In the six constituencies where the results were declared null and void due to irregularities, new elections will be held in April.

Algimantas Cekuolis, an editor who is also a Sajudis supporter and a leading member of the reform Communist faction, said that Sajudis-backed candidates will hold at least 95 seats in the new Parliament after the runoffs, and possibly as many as 100.

“If that is not a landslide, what is?” he asked.

Negotiations are already under way to form a coalition government, which may be headed by a Communist despite the party’s generally poor showing at the polls.

“There is no doubt that the new government will be a coalition of different parties and movements,” Landsbergis said. “I doubt that people opposed to independence will be welcomed in it.”

The hope in having a Communist head a coalition government is that it would make it easier for Moscow to open negotiations on Lithuanian independence.

One of the first jobs for the new Parliament when it finally sits for the first time, probably at the end of March, will be to select a president. The favorite is incumbent Algirdas Brazauskas, leader of the Lithuanian Communist Party.

The popular Brazauskas, who according to an unofficial tally won more than 90% of the vote in his constituency Saturday, led party reformers late last year in breaking with the Communist Party leadership in Moscow. Nevertheless, the Kremlin is used to dealing with him, and many here believe he would be the best person to navigate the treacherous course to any successful separation from Moscow.

If the Soviet leadership refuses to negotiate Lithuanian independence, according to Romualdas Ozolas, another reform Communist, “there is no point in having a Lithuanian Communist Party. The only reason for keeping the party going is to maintain links with Moscow.”

Many reform Communist leaders want to follow the lead of parties in Eastern Europe and change the party’s name to more accurately reflect their rejection of traditional Soviet Communist dogma.

Lithuanian Social Democratic Party leader, Kazimieras Antanavicius, who also won a seat in the new Parliament according to preliminary results, said Communists should lead the new coalition for another reason: They should be forced to bear responsibility for the republic’s economic problems.

“Every factory director, every manager, is a Communist installed by the party,” he told journalists. “You cannot expect us to change all that overnight. There will have to be a transition period during which it is essential the Communists stay in office.”

NEXT STEP Lithuania’s Sajudis reform leader Vytautas Landsbergis and Communist Party leader Algirdas Brazauskas are expected to head to Moscow soon to discuss independence. Both concede that the landslide victories for reformist candidates may help persuade Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev to acknowledge their demands but that Soviet military intervention cannot be ruled out. As for the new Parliament, one of the first jobs it faces will be to select a president who can continue to navigate the treacherous course toward secession. The favorite is Brazauskas, who led Communist Party reformers last year in breaking with the Moscow leadership.