Yeltsin has triumphant re-election victory

Voters choose democratic reforms over a return to communism

July 4, 1996
Web posted at: 6:10 a.m. EDT (1010 GMT)

MOSCOW (CNN) -- President Boris Yeltsin swept to a second term as president Thursday as Russians decisively rejected his Communist opponent's call to revive the Soviet Union and its rigid controls.

With 97 percent of the vote counted, Yeltsin had 53.7 percent compared to 40.4 percent for challenger Gennady Zyuganov. About 5 percent of voters exercised a third option by not choosing either candidate.

At Yeltsin headquarters, the mood was jubilant and champagne flowed. For Yeltsin, the victory marked a dramatic comeback. Six months ago, he was trailing Zyuganov in the polls and analysts were saying his career was over. His health also was a concern because of his history of heart trouble. Yeltsin was suffering from a cold during the final days of the campaign, his aides said.

Yeltsin has yet to comment on the victory, but Sergei Filatov, the head of Yeltsin's re-election team, said the president was pleased with the result.

"I think everybody should be renewed and we have a lot to sleep on," Filatov said. Asked if the Yeltsin camp was open to a coalition with the Communists, Filatov replied, "A political coalition will weaken this country."

Zyuganov, meanwhile, refused to admit defeat. "I don't consider myself a loser," he said.

He added that he was troubled by some of the preliminary returns, particularly those from the region of Dagestan. "We had 60 percent of support in Dagestan (in the first round) and now they say we have lost," Zyuganov said. "I want to find out how the figure could have changed so dramatically in just a few days."

Concerns about Yeltsin's health

Millions of Russians cast their ballots Wednesday amid increasing Western concern about the health of Yeltsin, who failed to cast his ballot in the media spotlight in Moscow. (611K QuickTime movie)

Yeltsin, who has not been seen in public since last week , voted in a small village near his country home at Barvikha, just outside the capital.

Zyuganov cast his ballot in Moscow and again called for a complete physical examination of the president, and complained that Yeltsin's canceled appearances in the final days of the campaign were an indication that he was too frail to lead the country.

The government has insisted that Yeltsin suffered from a "light cold," but sources close to the campaign told CNN that Yeltsin suffered an attack of angina pectoris, a painful reduction of blood flow to the heart.

Yeltsin has been hospitalized twice in the past year by heart problems. Doctors recommended bed rest both times.

Yeltsin's aides vigorously denied that the president was ill, and Russian television aired a clip of Yeltsin voting Wednesday morning.

Voting spanned 11 time zones, 24 hours

The first polling stations opened in the Chukotka peninsula, just a few miles from the border with the United States, at 8 a.m. local time. The balloting spanned 11 time zones, ending 24 hours later when the polls closed in the westernmost enclave of Kaliningrad, on the Baltic Sea.

In the first round of voting, Yeltsin, who once said he believed he would win outright, took 35 percent of the vote. Zyuganov placed only three points behind.

Yeltsin, the first elected president of the Russian Federation, appealed to voters during the campaign to give him four more years to complete the market reforms. In a television address this week, he exhorted voters to turn out and vote for "a new and free Russia."

Zyuganov offered the voters Communism with a new face, promising that freedom of religion and speech would be honored, that the social safety net would be restrung, and that private businesses that worked would remain in private hands.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Special Background Section

Back to the top

Feedback Send us your comments. Selected responses are posted daily.

---

| CONTENTS | SEARCH | CNN HOME PAGE | MAIN WORLD NEWS PAGE |

---

Copyright © 1996 Cable News Network, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.