Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 13, 1993 TAG: 9312130117
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
The new constitution would give Yeltsin commanding powers, but the vote scarcely portends a return to stability in this inflation-torn, crumbling empire.
Looming large in the new parliament will be the powerful telegenic presence of rabble-rousing ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who has advocated expanding Russia's borders to reclaim nuclear-armed Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.
Unofficial exit polls showed Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party running neck-and-neck with the pro-Yeltsin Russia's Choice Party, each with about 20 percent of the vote among 13 parties. The revived Communist Party was gaining about 10 percent, giving extremists nearly one-third of the party vote.
"Fascism is creeping in the door opened by our divisions and our ambitions," Yeltsin aide Mikhail Poltoranin said, lamenting the failure of four reformist blocs to join forces in the campaign.
Russian election officials were working through the night at 94,000 polling stations across 11 time zones, using pen and paper to add the votes on 300 million separate ballots resulting from a maddeningly complex voting system. Conclusive results will come in 10 to 14 days, a Yeltsin spokesman said.
Passage of the constitution, announced by Russian television, was a mighty relief for the president's team, who increasingly feared public disaffection with politics would kill the basic law that they promise will be the foundation of new democracy in Russia.
A wave of voter cynicism nearly overwhelmed the constitution, which required a 50 percent turnout to be ratified under rules promulgated by Yeltsin. Initial reports by the Central Elections Commission said that hurdle was surpassed by 1 to 3 percentage points.
Among those who did vote, the margin favoring the constitution was about 60-40, according to Russian television.
Like many young Russians, journalism student Larisa Gavrilova, 20, said she decided not to vote in the country's first multiparty election in 76 years. "I don't trust any of them," she said. "I think this election is just one more fraud."
Because of the legal blackout on opinion poll results after Dec. 1, many Russians were astonished at the late surge toward Zhirinovsky, a little-known lawyer who first captured attention as a 1991 presidential candidate when he promised cheap vodka - "at every corner, around the clock, if I win."
His 1993 rhetoric has been bland by comparison. But two years ago he said he wanted to become Russia's dictator. "Those who have to be arrested will be arrested quietly at night," he said. "I may have to shoot 100,000 people, but the other 300 million will live peacefully."
Because of the thin cushion of victory for the constitution and an imprecise electoral system, controversy likely will blossom over whether the document has been legitimately adopted.
by CNB