ELECTION IN SVERDLOVSK PROMISES YELTSIN VICTORY.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 2 Issue: 74

Preliminary results in the local elections held April 14 in Sverdlovsk oblast showed the "Urals Renewal" movement, which is led by oblast Governor Eduard Rossel, in the lead with 36.5 percent of the vote for the lower chamber of the region’s new bicameral legislative assembly. Second place went to the Communist party, with 15 percent. Third place went to "Our City is Our Home," a local affiliate of the pro-Yeltsin "Russia is Our Home" movement. Candidates from Grigory Yavlinsky’s Yabloko party and Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party won 3 percent each. Despite past disagreements over regional autonomy, Governor Rossel has declared his support for Yeltsin and the elections are therefore seen as promising a Yeltsin victory in June. On the basis of these results, Yeltsin should score somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of the vote in Sverdlovsk in June. A victory in Sverdlovsk, where Yeltsin was born and established his original power base, would not necessarily, of course, be repeated in other parts of the country. (Itar-Tass, April 15)

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