Far-Right Party Dealt Setback by Bavarians : Elections: The nationalist Republicans were winning only about 5% of the vote.

The far-right Republicans party suffered a sharp defeat in local elections in the conservative stronghold of Bavaria on Sunday.

While most West German attention was focused on the East German elections, voters in Bavaria elected council members and mayors in the southern state. Though late Sunday returns were not final, projections showed that the nationalistic Republicans were polling only around 5% of the vote.

In order to win representation in the federal Parliament in December’s scheduled national election, the Republicans--who liberal critics say have attracted neo-Nazi elements--must poll at least 5% nationwide.

They had reached 15% of the Bavarian vote in June’s elections to the European Parliament, and Republican strategists had said that since Bavaria is their power base, the party should have polled closer to 10% in Sunday’s local vote.

Their leader, Franz Schoenhuber, a former SS army sergeant in World War II, admitted Sunday that the Bavarian results are disappointing, saying, “I take the responsibility for not succeeding.”

Schoenhuber’s wife, Ingrid, ran for mayor of Munich, the Bavarian capital. She won only about 5% of the ballots. The city’s traditional party in power, the Social Democrats, won the mayor’s post.

Political observers in Bavaria said the Republicans, who polled 7.3% nationwide in the European Parliament election, have probably passed their high-water mark.

They have been strongly identified with Schoenhuber, a former television journalist, and have presented no other strong candidates. The party has also been rent by factional and personal feuds.

The Republicans’ platform, that of German reunification, has been adopted by all the other West German parties, leaving the Republicans with no special issue to differentiate them.

The Republicans had tried but failed to enter candidates in Sunday’s East German election.

In recent weeks, Republicans’ standing in opinion polls slumped to 2.9%--well under the margin needed for representation in the state and national legislatures.