Czechs to Elect President by January

PRAGUE--The opposition and Communists resolved their last major dispute by agreeing yesterday that the president should be elected by Parliament before the end of January, negotiators said yesterday.

Participants in the debate said there was no agreement on who would become president but that the person chosen would be a Czech not affiliated to any political party.

That plan seems to pave the way for opposition leader Vaclav Havel, a jailed playwright and symbol of Czechoslovakia's peaceful revolution, and dash the hopes of Alexander Dubcek, the 68-year-old Slovak who led the "Prague Spring" reforms of 1968.

During the presidential negotiations yesterday, the government announced the drafting of laws to ensure freedom of religion, assembly and association and provide more protection to people who are arrested.

Under the current constitution, Parliament has 14 days from the resignation of President Gustav Husak on Sunday to choose a new president. Participants in Wednesday's talks said the deadline would be extended to 45 days.

Civic Forum, the opposition group led by Havel, proposed him for president Sunday, but Communist members of Parliament proposed a referendum of citizens to choose a president.

Communist negotiators did not comment on the talks.

The proposed reforms were announced by Deputy Premier Jan Carnogursky, a dissident lawyer who was released from jail two weeks ago and on Sunday was named to the first government led by non-Communists in 41 years.

Carnogursky said the changes in the penal code would strengthen the independence of the judiciary and reduce the time a person can be held in custody before charges are filed.

The presidential tussle is the latest battle for a popular opposition movement that in three weeks got the Communists to oust old Stalinist hard-liners and relinquish the party's 41-year monopoly on power.