By winning up to 57 percent of the vote, Yeltsin avoided a run-off and strengthened his hand against Communist Party stalwarts who oppose his program to transfer ownership of state-owned farms and factories to individuals.; The victory cleared the way for the white-haired Siberian to travel to Washington next week, at the invitation of members of Congress, in a demonstration of his independence from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.; The White House today applauded Yeltsin's election as "a good sign" for democracy and said he would visit the White House next Thursday.; Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said President Bush wants to discuss with Yeltsin "his new position and to discuss the future of the Russian Republic as well as any other matters he wants to talk about."; Yeltsin's Russian republic has more than half the nation's 285 million people, three-fourths of its territory and most of its natural wealth and industry.; Two other radical reformers, Moscow Mayor Gavriil Popov and Leningrad Mayor Anatoly Sobchak, also won, according to preliminary results. Popov received 65.11 percent of the vote, and Sobchak 65.5 percent, commission officials said.; And a 54 percent majority in Leningrad voted to restore that city to its original czarist name, St. Petersburg, election officials said. Gorbachev and other Communist Party officials oppose dropping the current name, which honors Vladimir Lenin, founder of the Soviet Union.; The chairman of the Central Election Commission, Vasily Kazakov, was quoted by the state news agency Tass as saying that Yeltsin has won a majority, and "a second round in the elections for the president of Russia, apparently will not take place."; Alexander Zamyatin, another member of the commission, said Yeltsin was winning, but said t the results were "preliminary. We cannot give official results until June 22."; Democracy is still in its infancy in Russia, and election officials said they were laboriously counting paper ballots cast at each of the 98,000 polling stations, stretching from the Pacific to the Baltic coasts. Election officials were unable to say precisely what percentage of the vote had been counted.; The 61-year-old Yeltsin was resting at home, his office said, and planned no immediate comment on Wednesday's historic vote.; Yeltsin's closest rival, former Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov was supported by the hard-line Russian Communist Party, and advocated a more gradual transition from a centrally planned to a market economy.; Gorbachev, who has never faced a popular election, did not endorse any of the six candidates for the newly created post of Russian president. He declared after he voted Wednesday: "I am ready to cooperate with anyone who will be elected by Russians. There will be no problems from my side."; Yeltsin said after casting his ballot that the election was "a celebration of the Russian Federation's sovereignty. For the first time in its 1,000-year history, the Russian people are electing their president in a direct vote."; Four of Yeltsin's opponents are members of the Communist Party, and party elders were widely thought to have flooded the field with candidates to block Yeltsin from a first round victory.; Preliminary results showed Yeltsin won:; (check) 75 percent of votes in Moscow.; (check) 67.5 percent in Leningrad, the second-largest Soviet city.; (check) 90 percent in his hometown of Sverdlovsk, in the Ural Mountains.; (check) 81 percent in the Pacific and Indian Ocean Navy fleets, and about two-thirds of the vote among fishing fleets off Nakhodka on the Sea of Japan.; (check) 74 percent of votes cast by officers and students of a special secondary school intended to train Soviet Interior Ministry staff in Rostov-on-Don.; Tass, quoting unidentified "trustworthy sources," said Yeltsin received an average of between 60 and 70 percent of the vote in major industrial cities. The agency also said Yeltsin won the most votes in rural areas, countering predictions that Ryzhkov was stronger among farmers.; The three-week campaign was not as boisterous as a Western election, with most of the campaigning confined to factories and auditoriums. Only Yeltsin drew large rallies as he stumped across the Russian heartland.; Besides Ryzhkov, his challengers were former Soviet Interior Minister Vadim Bakatin, who also enjoys Communist support; Gen. Albert Makashov, a hard-line law-and-order Communist; Vladimir Zhirinovsky, head of the tiny Liberal Democratic Party; and Aman Tuleyev, a Siberian active in the trade union movement.; Boris Yeltsin elected president; Born: Feb. 1, 1931, in Butka, Siberia, in Russian republic; 1955: Construction worker in Sverdlovsk; 1976: First secretary, Sverdlovsk District Central Committee; 1987: Outburst against conservative archrival Yegor Ligachev leads to Yeltsin's ouster from Politburo; 1989: Bounces back from disgrace; wins 89% of vote to be Moscow's representative in new Congress of People's Deputies, the national parliament; 1990: Republic's parliament elects him president of Russia; June 12, 1991: In Russia's first popular election, Yeltsin received about 57% of the vote in race for president; SOURCES: Facts on File, news reports, International Who's Who; NOW call him Mr. President; Although Boris Yeltsin has been called the president of Russia, he actually has been the chairman of its legislature since May 1990.; The new, more powerful post of president of Russia was created last month by the republic's lawmakers.; Source: Associated Press
Boris Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian republic by winning up to 57 percent of the vote. The victory was certain to accelerate reforms across the Soviet Union and it cleared the way for him to travel to Washington next week, at the invitation of Congress, in a demonstration of independence from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. The White House applauded his election as a "good sign" for democracy and said he would visit here next Thursday. However, democracy is still in its infancy in Russia. Election officials say they are laboriously counting paper ballots cast at each of 98,000 polling stations.