World IN BRIEF : SOVIET UNION : Estonia, Latvia Begin Independence Votes

The Baltic republics of Estonia and Latvia held preliminary voting on ballots seeking further independence from the Soviet Union, the Soviet news agency Tass said. Only a few people in the two republics cast ballots early in the referendums on independence. Official balloting is scheduled for March 3. Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev has branded the polls unconstitutional. In Latvia, 1,400 polling stations were opened for people unable to vote in the March 3 non-binding vote on independence, Tass said. In Estonia, town councils in the three predominantly Russian-speaking towns of Sillamyae, Narva and Kokhtla-Yarve voted to hold their voting early, although officials in those towns did not say why.