Yeltsin Is Said to Drop Own Plan for Referendum
A close aide to President Boris N. Yeltsin said Thursday that the Russian leader has dropped a plan to hold his own national vote of confidence and ignore the referendum called by the Congress of People’s Deputies.
The Congress, locked in a power struggle with Yeltsin, voted Monday to call a popular vote of confidence in the president April 25.
But it set conditions weighed heavily against Yeltsin and rejected his proposal for a constitutional question to be included that would allow voters to choose more specifically between the President and Congress.
Mikhail Poltoranin, head of Yeltsin’s Federal Information Center, told a news conference that the president has decided against trying to hold a rival referendum on the same day.
“The president is not going to come out with a separate vote, and he will take part in the (Congress’) referendum whatever its rules are,” he said.
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