
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990                   TAG: 9003071315
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                 LENGTH: Short

OLD GUARD NOT VANQUISHED, SOVIET ELECTION RESULTS SHOW

Official election returns trickling in Tuesday appeared to bear out pro-democracy movements' claims of widespread victories in the country's Slavic heartland, but they also showed Soviet officialdom winning several key races.

Communist Party and government officials who won seats in Sunday's local elections included the Ukraine's prime minister, Vitaly Masol, several chiefs of the Ukraine's Communist Party, and the president and prime minister of Byelorussia, the state-run news agency Tass reported.

Among prominent pro-reform candidates named as winners by the official press Tuesday were Tatyana Koryagina, a radical economist who has warned of a conservative conspiracy against reform, and Victor Shinkaretsky, a crusading consumer reporter on Soviet TV.

The vast majority of the 1,800 parliament seats up for grabs in the Ukraine, Byelorussia and the Russian republic parliaments must be decided in runoff elections. Candidates were required to win 50 percent of the vote.

The runoff elections are expected within two weeks.

Activists from the Ukraine's Narodny Rukh, Byelorussian People's Front and various other progressive movements have said strong showings in this round nearly guaranteed victories in runoff elections for reformist candidates.

by CNB