Non-Communists Win Soviet Vote

Non-Communist parties won elections in the republic of Georgia on a platform calling for independence from the Soviet Union, private ownership of land and a capitalist economy, officials said today.

“We are certainly going to have a majority in Parliament,” said Zviad Gamsakhurdia, leader of the victorious Round Table-Free Georgia bloc of political parties.

With about 90% of the regions reporting, Gamsakhurdia claimed victory in about 70%.

He protested what he called “gross violations” of the election law and said Communist authorities “terrorized the non-Georgian population” along the borders of the mountainous southern republic, which is dotted with pockets of Azerbaijani and other ethnic groups.

A member of the central election commission, Alexander Kobalia, said that preliminary results showed a slightly less sweeping victory for Gamsakhurdia’s Round Table, with the bloc winning about 60% of the vote versus 30% for the Communist Party.

The final results will be ready on Wednesday, and a runoff will be held for close races on Nov. 11, he said.

No date has been set yet for convening the Georgian Supreme Soviet legislature, which is expected to declare independence from the Soviet Union.

Among the 15 Soviet republics, all but Kirgizia have declared some form of sovereignty or independence.

Gamsakhurdia said he was unable to specify what his first proposal would be in Parliament. “I can’t decide that alone,” said Gamsakhurdia, an imposing 51-year-old with a history of arrests and opposition to Communist rule dating to the 1950s.

Another Round Table spokesman, Georgi Makaridze, said the victory would translate into about 120 seats in the 250-member Supreme Soviet. “Along with other non-Communist parties, we will have a working majority in Parliament,” Makaridze said.