TEN NEW DEPUTIES ELECTED TO UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT. According to preliminary results released by the Central Electoral Commission, the 25 June by-elections in 10 constituencies resulted in the election of 10 new deputies, Interfax reported. The 450-seat legislature lacked 10 deputies because of the departure of nine lawmakers to work in the government and the death of one in 1998. The newly elected lawmakers include former Economy Minister Serhiy Tyhypko, former Health Minister Rayisa Bohatyrova, former Naftohaz Ukrayiny head Ihor Bakay, and Taras Chornovil, the son of former Rukh leader Vyacheslav Chornovil. JM

UKRAINE'S COMMUNIST PARTY WANTS TO OUST 'ANTI-POPULAR REGIME.' Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko told the party's congress in Kyiv on 24 June that Ukraine can be rescued from the "real threat of catastrophe" only if the current reform course is halted and the "anti-popular regime" removed, Interfax reported. According to Symonenko, the regime can be ousted only by means of a class struggle that should be lead by Ukraine's Communist Party, an organization of "genuine proletarian revolutionists." The next day, the congress appointed a 147-strong Central Committee, which immediately re-elected Symonenko as the party's first secretary. JM