Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Lithuania election is shocker Date: Tue, 27 Oct 92 13:27:07 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Lithuania election is shocker \SH Ex-Communists score big victory \BY Gerald Nadler \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES \DT MOSCOW MOSCOW - Lithuania's former Communists won a resounding election victory over the nationalist Sajudis movement, results showed yesterday. Analysts blamed the economy. The triumph by the Social Democratic Labor Party (DLP) sent chills all the way to Moscow, where the Russian people, like the Lithuanians, are suffering from inflation and the threat of reduced services. For parliament speaker and Sajudis leader Vytautas Landsbergis, the former music professor who propelled Lithuania to independence, the vote was a renunciation of his policy of austerity and confrontation with Moscow. One-third of Lithuania's plants are idle, fuel is scarce, and heating and hot water in apartments and offices have been reduced, as has public transportation. A summer drought ravaged the harvest in the agriculturally rich state. "The results were a little unexpected. The political landscape will be clearly different from before," Mr. Landsbergis said in an understatement. The Itar-Tass news agency said other nationalist politicians were "shocked" and quoted one as saying, "A Communist threat is emerging." The left's surprise comeback returned DLP chief Algirdas Brazauskas to a leadership role in Lithuania, where he had always been one of the most popular politicians. "People have given their support to realistic moderate forces," Mr. Brazauskas told Reuters news agency in Vilnius, the capital. With 42.6 percent of the vote counted, the DLP had won 43 of the 141 seats in the national legislature, called the Sejm. But the DLP margin will be far greater when all the votes are tallied. It has won 35 of 70 seats in the proportionally elected half of the parliament, where voting is by party list. In the single-mandate districts, the DLP won the first eight seats for which results were announced. Here the voting is for individuals. In single districts where no candidate got more than 50 percent, runoff elections will be Nov. 8. Epitomizing his personal and political victory, Mr. Brazauskas trounced ex-premier and Sajudis leader Gjadiminas Vagnorius in one of the individual districts. Sajudis, so far, has won only 21.6 percent of the vote and 18 Sejm seats. In the single-mandate districts, it captured 46.57 percent of the vote. Belying predictions of voter apathy, over 70 percent of the electorate turned out on a chilly day of rain and sleet to signal an end to the heady days of the independence fight and the start of the struggle to survive this winter. "I will not promise a pot of gold tomorrow," said the statesmanlike, white-haired Mr. Brazauskas, 60. Mr. Brazauskas, who is well respected in Moscow, said he would seek to obtain Russian oil below the world prices Moscow is asking. If called on, he said, he would be willing to form a government with any party, including Sajudis. Ironically, Mr. Brazauskas bears large responsibility for the destruction of the Soviet Union. His declaration of independence for Lithuania's Communist Party broke the monolithic control of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev, then party general secretary, rushed to Vilnius to try to dissuade Mr. Brazauskas, warning him he had taken the first step to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Mr. Landsbergis came to power in 1990 when Sajudis-backed delegates won election to the Supreme Soviet of Lithuania. His defeat came just as he appeared to be making progress in negotiations with Moscow, winning the first agreement of the three Baltic states for a specific date to withdraw all Soviet troops - next year. Although Mr. Brazauskas' victory will certainly ease relations with Moscow, he stressed that Lithuania and not communism comes first. "We will continue the course of our independence. We will demand that the former Soviet army leave and pay for damages." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM