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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1990                   TAG: 9007110183
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW                                LENGTH: Short

PARTY RE-ELECTS GORBACHEV

Mikhail Gorbachev won easy re-election Tuesday as Soviet Communist Party leader from a congress that assailed him for eight days but concluded the party could not survive without him.

Although opposition appeared to melt as the delegates considered electing a new general secretary, a sizable anti-Gorbachev sentiment was evident in the balloting.

Delegates voted 3,411 to 1,116 to keep Gorbachev as general secretary.

In a brief acceptance speech, the 59-year-old president and party leader expressed "gratitude for enormous support and trust" placed in him. "I thank you for this," he said.

He said he would take into account the criticism leveled at him and would take "the most serious, far-reaching conclusions" from it.

He then adopted a serious tone of voice and said: "You elected me after hearing my positions. I take my election as support for my positions."

Many had expected the congress could pose a challenge to Gorbachev, but delegates approved his proposal to reorganize and expand the party Politburo, transferring greater power to the government.

The top party job carries no fixed term of office. But the meeting changed party rules to require the general secretary be elected by a congress, which traditionally meets every four or five years, rather than by the Central Committee, which meets several times a year. The change will make it harder for opponents to oust Gorbachev as party leader, a post he has held since 1985.

In March, Gorbachev was elected to a five-year term as president with authority newly strengthened at his initiative.

by CNB