The leader of the Sajudis reform movement said Sunday that independence for Lithuania could be achieved this year after his group claimed a landslide victory in the Soviet Union's first multiparty election. In balloting for the Baltic republic's 141-seat parliament Saturday, voters appeared to have chosen the country's first legislature not dominated by Communists. The main contenders were the Sajudis Popular Front, which has led the drive for independence, and the reformed Lithuanian Communist Party. On the street outside the Sajudis headquarters, passers-by gathered excitedly around posters announcing the victory. Unofficial returns showed that of the 90 races decided, Sajudis-endorsed candidates took 72 seats and non-Sajudis candidates took 18, said Rita Dapkus, head of the Sajudis information agency. ``If that is not a landslide, then what is?'' Algimantas Cekuolis, a Sajudis officer, said at a news conference Sunday. ``It is a very clear indication of what the people of Lithuania think.'' Sajudis gathered the election results by calling local election commissions, and the tallies were believed to be reliable. Official results were not expected until Monday. Mrs. Dapkus said 45 races had no majority winner and will be decided by runoff votes on March 10, while six were invalidated by insufficient voter turnout or other factors. They will be decided in April. Turnout among the 2.56 million eligible voters was about 75 percent, officials said. Vytautus Landsbergis, Sajudis chairman, said the results showed Lithuanians trust his movement. ``We have a common and very clear goal. Our clear goal is statehood and the independence of Lithuania,'' he said. ``This goal is achievable this year.'' The new Parliament's chief task will be navigating the Baltic republic's difficult course to secession from the Soviet Union. Sajudis wants talks with Moscow to prepare for an orderly secession, which would break a 50-year-old tie that began with Lithuania's occupation by the Red Army in 1940 and its annexation later that year. The movement supports a neutral, sovereign Lithuania characterized by a market economy and guarantees for human and cultural rights. Although Sajudis dominated the voting, Landsbergis did not rule out a strong role for the reformed Communists in a coalition government selected by the new Parliament. He stressed the close ties between Sajudis and reform-minded Communist Party members. ``Probably we will not ignore the party as an administrative power and partner,'' said Landsbergis, who easily won election as a parliament deputy from northern Lithuania. But, he said, the hard-line Communists, who oppose independence, would probably not be welcome in the coalition. The participation by Sajudis and at least six other parties in parliamentary elections was a first in the Soviet Union. In December, Lithuania became the first of the 15 Soviet republics to legalize non-Communist parties. The reform Communists won 22 seats, but 13 of those were in districts where they were backed by Sajudis. Candidates from the Lithuanian chapter of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which remains loyal to Moscow and opposes full independence, won seven seats. Two non-party independents also won seats without Sajudis backing. The Communist winners included the party's first secretary, and Lithuanian President Algirdas Brazauskas, who in December defied Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev and led his party to split with moscow. Among the 72 Sajudis winners were 46 independents, 13 reform Communists, nine Social Democrats, two Greens and two Christian Democrats. Moldavians voted Sunday in their first free elections under Soviet rule and expressed hopes their new Parliament would be able to win greater sovereignty from Moscow. The main challenger to the Communists in Moldavia was the Moldavian Popular Front, which likes to compare itself to Sajudis. The Red Army occupied Lithuania in June 1940 in accordance with the secret terms of the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, in which Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union divided central Europe between themselves. Lithuania's old Parliament was coerced into voting to join the Soviet Union the next month, and Lithuania was formally annexed by the Soviets on Aug. 24, 1940. Lithuania had emerged as an independent state in 1918 with the collapse of the Russian empire in World War I.
