YELTSIN CONFIDENT OF VICTORY.

President Boris Yeltsin said on Russian Television on Sunday evening that he was sure he would win an outright victory in the first round of the presidential election June 16. Yeltsin told an interviewer that he was so confident of exceeding 50 percent in the first round that he had told his campaign staff not to bother planning for a second round. But, he said with a laugh, they had gone ahead anyway. (BBC World Service, June 9)

The latest public opinion polls show Yeltsin with a lead of about 11 percentage points over his main rival, Gennady Zyuganov, but still short of outright victory. But members of Yeltsin’s campaign staff have confessed to doctoring the polls to minimize Yeltsin’s lead. They said they did this to frighten rival candidates Grigory Yavlinsky and Aleksandr Lebed out of plans to form a coalition that could have taken votes from Yeltsin. (Time magazine, May 27)

Zyuganov Appeals for the Religious Vote.