Vox Populi

"Early returns," crowed the Sofia radio last week, "show a crushing victory of the Fatherland Front over the opposition."

The news surprised nobody. The results of Communist-dominated Bulgaria's first general elections since she became a republic were easily predictable. A month ago U.S. Secretary of State Byrnes had protested that the three-power Yalta agreement on free elections was being violated. Sample: when the opposition parties were finally permitted to hold a rally in a Sofia square, an inexplicable power failure (the Government controls all utilities) had left the square in darkness, the loudspeakers hushed. Meanwhile, at another rally of the free electorate (complete with loudspeakers) Georgi Dimitroff, onetime chief of the Comintern and head of Bulgaria's Communists, warned anyone considering voting against the Government party: "It is worth remembering the fate of Draja Mihailovich in Yugoslavia."

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