SOVIET GEORGIA ELECTS FIRST INDEPENDENT PRESIDENT

The parliament in the breakaway Soviet republic of Georgia yesterday unanimously elected nationalist leader Zviad Gamsakhurdia as the republic's first president. Georgia declared unilateral independence from the Soviet Union last week. Deputies planned to decide later what powers to give Mr. Gamsakhurdia.

The vote seems likely to increase tension between Georgia and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, fighting to keep the country's increasingly rebellious 15 republics together.