ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 17, 1996 TAG: 9606190015
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MOSCOW NOTE: LEDE
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
Boris Yeltsin took a firm step toward re-election Sunday in the first round of presidential balloting, piling up big margins in Russia's major cities and running stronger than expected in some of the country's most conservative regions.
But the 65-year-old Yeltsin, who made a remarkable comeback after trailing badly early in the campaign, still fell far short of the clear majority needed for outright victory and will go head-to-head against Communist Party candidate Gennady Zyuganov in a runoff next month.
While Sunday's voting made it clear that most Russians prefer to struggle on with reform rather than veer back to Soviet-style controls, Yeltsin still faces a serious challenge in attracting enough swing voters to prevail in the second round.
With two-fifths of the vote counted early today, Yeltsin was narrowly edging Zyuganov, 34 percent to 32 percent. Former Army Gen. Alexander Lebed was pulling in about 15 percent.
Tight as they were, those preliminary results were welcome news for Yeltsin. They showed him with big leads in his urban strongholds and doing surprisingly well in backward-looking regions where Communists and nationalists set the pace in December's parliamentary elections.
Moreover, Yeltsin had reason to hope that he could win over Lebed, and many of the general's supporters, in the second round of voting.
Sunday's results may have written the political obituary of Russia's most controversial public figure, ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who could finish as far back as fifth in a field of 10 candidates, according to a nationwide exit poll sponsored by U.S. television networks.
The flamboyant Zhirinovsky, who peppers his speeches with anti-American and anti-Semitic remarks, had much of his previous right-wing support siphoned off by Lebed, whose strong third place showing was the shock of Sunday's balloting.
The upset performance by the pug-faced, gravel-voiced Lebed transformed him overnight from an also-ran into a potential kingmaker for the second round.
That was fine by Yeltsin's campaign managers, who have been saying for weeks it would be easier for the president to cut a deal with Lebed than with Zhirinovsky.
In a TV appearance Sunday evening, a clearly delighted Lebed declined to offer any clues about whom he might support in the second round. But Yeltsin aides said the president could sit down with the charismatic Afghan war hero as early as this morning.
Lebed, who has made no secret of his deep longing to be Russia's defense minister, doubtless will take great personal satisfaction from being courted by Yeltsin, who forced him to retire from the army last year after the general voiced bitter criticism of the war in Chechnya.
Despite widespread predictions that both sides would engage in vote fraud - and open threats by the Communists not to respect the results if they suspected foul play - neither Yeltsin's nor Zyuganov's camp lodged any complaints Sunday.
When all the ballots are tallied, Yeltsin should claim about 35 percent of the vote, compared with about 29 percent for Zyuganov and 15 percent for Lebed, according to the exit survey.
Those numbers suggest that both Yeltsin and Lebed mobilized their natural voter blocs during a campaign during which the president overcame a 20-point deficit in opinion polls.
Yeltsin was supported by younger Russians and people who have adjusted to new economic realities. Zyuganov was backed mainly by pensioners and middle-aged Russians whose jobs have vanished or who continue to work in bankrupt large enterprises or on collective farms without getting paid.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Headshot of Zyuganov. Color. KEYWORDS: RUSSIA Type first letter of feature OR type help for list of commands FIND S-DB DB OPT SS WRD QUIT QUIT Save options? YES NO GROUP YOU'VE SELECTED: QUIT NO login: cby CNB