VOL.101.NO.11
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
KANSAS STATE HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
TOPEKA KS 66612
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1991
(USPS 650-640)
ADVERTISING:864-4358
NEWS:864-4810
Thousands protest Azerbaijani elections
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — The southern republic of Azerbaijan held its first presidential election yesterday, but its current leader, a former Communist chief, was the only candidate on the ballot.
About 50,000 people carried blank ballots to Freedom Square in Baku, the capital, to protest the election, the independent Turan news agency reported. The protesters called for the resignation of the government, urged the creation of strike committees and demanded access to the republic's news media, Turan said.
Despite the protest and a call for a boycott, voter turnout was heavy, and President Ayaz Mualibow was expected to win approval easily. news agencies reported. In one-candidate elections, voters can approve or reject the candidate.
Mutabilib, leader of the republic since 1990, called the election in June, two months before a coup attempt by hard-line Communist Party members led to the disintegration of the party. He quit as leader of the Azerbaijani Communist Party after the coup.
A Soviet television report last night quoted employees of the election commission in Baku as saying Mualibov's election "can be considered a fait accompli." The Soviet new-
agency Tass said.
Official results were expected as early as today.
today.
An opposition figure from the Social Democratic Party withdrew his candidacy last week to protest that the Popular Front of Azerbaijan called undemocratic elections. The front called for the balloting to be postponed because the opposition had not been able to organize.
in Baku, the Popular Front of Azerbaijan said the presidential election had been tainted by voting irregularities. It said that election observers were not allowed in some polling stations and that officials handed out multiple ballots to some people so they could vote on behalf of their families, Turan reported.
such elections were a hallmark of Soviet politics before President Mikhail Gorbachev took power in 1985 but have been rare in recent years under his democratic reforms.
Scarce goods, such as sugar, sausage, candy and cookies, were put on sale at polling places to attract voters, the Popular Front said.
The election commission estimated that 83.7 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
ranks to head the republic
Mutalibov, 53, is an economist and technocrat who rose through the Communist Party
After the failed coup, Mutalibov quit as Communist Party leader in the republic and seized party properties. Azerbaijan joined other republics in declaring independence from the Kremlin.
Vagif Samedoglu, an opposition leader, told an anti-election rally that the Kremlin supports Mutalibov because he does not demand complete independence, Turan reported.
Turan said the leader of the Popular Front, Abufas Velchibye, urged government opponents to rally again on Friday to protest the election.
The republic of 7 million, whose population is predominantly Muslim, is engaged in a conflict with the neighboring republic of Armenia, whose population is predominantly Christian. The dispute centers on Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave composed of a mainly Armenian population but is controlled by Azerbaijan.
In Stephanakert, the principal city of Nagorno-Karabakh, only the Azerbaijani population voted, Tass reported. Tass said six people were killed and four seriously wounded in violence Saturday between Azerbaijanis and Armenians in the enclave.
Some Soviet troops leave Lithuania after recognition of Baltic freedom
The Associated Press
VILNIUS, Lithuania — A convoy of Soviet trucks and armored vehicles left this capital city for Russian territory yesterday — two days after the Soviet Union recognized Lithuania's independence.
Lithuanian President Vytautas Landsbergis has asked repeatedly that all Soviet troops leave Lithuania by the end of the year.
Yesterday's departure had been forecast by Lithuanian government sources and a newspaper Saturday, and photographers and camera crews were on hand.
Sixteen trucks and nine armored personnel carriers were escorted by two Lithuanian police cars from the northern army garrison in Vilnius.
Police at the scene said they were ordered to escort the convoy to the Russian district of Kaliningrad, a Soviet enclave that borders
Lithuania to the west.
A Lithuanian Defense Department representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Lithuania was treating the departure as a movement because no formal withdrawal had been negotiated.
Deputy Premier Vygms Vaicivla was in Moscow on Saturday to talk with Soviet officials about the troops, Lithuanian television reported.
On Friday, the newly formed state council of the Soviet Union recognized the 1940 annexation of Lithuania as illegal.
The precise number of Soviet troops in Lithuania has never been made public, but analysts said more than 100,000 were stationed in the Baltics, mostly in Lithuania.
Some Interior Ministry troops have already pulled out from Lithuania and Latvia.
Fiscal belt tightens o state scho for '91-'92
The Associated Press
TOPEKA — School board never seen such a budget (or while universities have cut st to compensate for shrinking stributions to their revenue base year of fiscal belt tighter Kansas.
"It's the toughest year I' through," said Dale Dennis, state education commission financial services. He's in 1 year as the state's top exp; financing elementary and sec education.
Horror stories of budget s abound, and Dennis has hear all. He's the state official who superintendents and budget call for counseling and advice intrum their budgets.
It has been even worse on lak 100 local school districts than in the early 1970s. Dennis said, when a tax law lid that was the administration of the la Robert Docking prevented c from raising property taxes to their budgets.
The reason for the budget sla reduced state funding for both school districts and Board of I institutions.
The 1991 Legislature, faced tight budget because of slugs receipts and overspending in *paxa* passed a tax increase *paka* would have generated an *ad valent* million for state aid to *ocrii*.
But when Gov. Joan Finney the tax bill in May, it reduce amount of general state aid school districts from $545.9 m 1990-91 to $519.3 million for the school year.
The Legislature also appre-
sents $396.8 million in general fund
for the universities, which wail
million more than they recie
the 1990-91 school year. Finney
cent cut at age that increase,
the universities with the same
of state money as the previous.
Because of Finney's 1-pere-
school districts will have to go
with $31.8 million less in gen-
aid than they got last year.
Then, two weeks ago, the Finance Council approved F call for an across-the-board reduction in state spending. Than another $2.5 million bit in state aid from school districts.
That is not all. The Legi changed the distribution form allotting state aid to local d and that cost many of them — ely some of the larger district chunks of state aid.
Wichita's total state aid of nearly $10 million, while Ola Blue Valley lost about $3 million Topeka and Lawrence lost me $2 million each, and Hays, Gar and Dodge all lost about $ half the district lost
About half the districts lost state aid.
a special supplement
Chip Hilleary leads the attack for the Jayhawks this year in their quest for a winning season.
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kansas football
the university daily kansan