Two Elections

Communists last week faced the electoral test in two central European countries. In East Germany, the voters were not even allowed the privilege of staying away from the polls. They were awakened by fanfares from Communist Youth bands, marched to the polls behind red banners, and handed ballots for the single official ticket, the Communist National Front. They could not vote no. There were no other candidates, no places for write-ins, nothing to mark. They could only drop ballots into boxes held before them. The result: a turnout of 99.3% of eligible voters, and 99.3% approval for every one of the 400 candidates. (Though the East German Parliament has unanimously approved everything put before it, new candidates had to be elected to replace nine Deputies who have been arrested, 44 fired for political unreliability, and 15 who have fled to the West.)

On the same day, voters went to the polls in Austria, where elections are free and secret. The contrast was striking. In the Russian sector of Vienna, the Communists got 8.6% of the vote; in the Soviet-occupied province of Lower Austria they got 5%.

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