BELARUSIAN PARLIAMENT ELECTS AGRARIAN LEADER AS SPEAKER.

Agrarian party founder Semyon Sharetsky was elected chairman of the new Belarusian Supreme Council yesterday. He succeeds Myacheslau Hryb, a vocal opponent of President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Hryb removed his name from contention but nevertheless received some votes. Lukashenko’s preferred candidate for speaker, former prime minister Vyacheslau Kebich, also withdrew his name from the voting, for reasons that remain unclarified. Sharetsky defeated reformer Stanislau Bahdankevich and Communist party first secretary Syarhei Kalyakin in the vote. (6) The Agrarians are the second largest party faction in parliament after the communists. Long considered the latter’s "junior partner," the Agrarian Party recently began to distance itself from Kalyakin’s organization. Sharetsky, like Lukashenko, built his career as a collective farm chairman.

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