Return of Lotus Blossom

Three years ago, when South Viet Nam elected the first Senate under its new constitution, it was highly questionable whether the new political system would survive long enough for a second election. This week, as three-quarters of the nation's 6.6 million eligible voters were expected to go to the polls to fill half of those 60 Senate seats, the mechanics of representative government seemed to be working to an encouraging if still limited degree.

The 2 1/2-week campaign has been the most trouble-free in South Viet Nam's political history. Each of the 16 separate slates, mostly shaky coalitions patched together for the campaign, fielded ten candidates. The government granted each slate a $30,000 campaign fund, and they produced American-style campaigns featuring posters, sound trucks and television advertisements.

Defusing Protests. There was still the possibility that last-minute Communist attacks would disrupt the balloting, but the campaigning took place in an atmosphere of relative normality. The military front remained quiescent. U.S. battle deaths dropped to 52 for the past week, the lowest toll in 4 1/2 years. The cities were also peaceful. President Nguyen Van Thieu has defused chronic student protest by releasing jailed students. He also succeeded in mollifying the raucous disabled war veterans, who roll to their riots in wheelchairs, by granting them more liberal benefits.

The government is also gaining support in rural areas. As Thieu told TIME last week: "I think the countryman has more confidence in us today. The Viet Cong are now trying to rebuild their strength in the countryside, but it is too late." Last week Thieu handed out the first titles under a 2.5 million-acre land-reform program designed to gain peasant support.

The government tolerates only a narrow range of opposition; some members of the democratic left still languish in jail, including the prominent government opponent, Truong Dinh Dzu. There were no known Communists or Communist sympathizers among the 160 Senate candidates. While none of the 16 slates was endorsed by Thieu's six-party National Democratic and Socialist Front, eleven were considered favorably disposed to the government. The other five kept their criticism mild.

Thieu remained aloof from the election, thus being able to claim victory no matter which three of the 16 slates won. The election, in fact, was expected to strengthen the President's hold on the Senate, which in the past has been the only source of effective legal opposition to his regime.

Even the participation of a slate backed by the antigovernment An Quang Pagoda Buddhist faction was expected to work in Thieu's favor. One of the faction's leaders is Thich Tri Quang, who helped overthrow the Diem regime in 1963. The militant group had previously scorned participation in the present government. The fact that they fielded a slate of candidates on the ballot, with the lotus blossom for their symbol, was regarded in Saigon as a return to the legitimate fold. It would support Thieu's claim that electoral democracy is becoming a reality in South Viet Nam.

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