Lithuanians Vote to Set Up Separate Communist Party
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VILNIUS, Soviet Union — Lithuanian Communists overwhelmingly approved a resolution today calling for an end to their subordination to the Soviet Communist Party.
A final vote on formally establishing a fully independent Lithuanian Communist Party was delayed by several hours of debate on procedural questions.
By a vote of 838 to 142, the Lithuanian Communist Party congress meeting in Vilnius, the capital, approved a resolution calling for “relations of equal partnership with the Soviet Communist Party, other progressive parties, public organizations and movements.”
Lithuanian Communists, who supported a legislative move Dec. 7 to strike the leading role of the party from the Baltic republic’s constitution, are spurred by the need to compete with the grass-roots political movement Sajudis and other newly formed parties for local elections Feb. 24.
Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev had appealed to Lithuanian Communists not to break away, saying a split will damage his reform efforts.
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