500,000 in Leipzig Demand Reform : East Germany: The number of citizens fleeing to the West in the last three days tops 23,000.

EAST BERLIN —  Half a million East Germans thronged the streets of Leipzig in a cold rain tonight to demand free elections and unlimited freedom to travel abroad, while the number leaving for West Germany in the last three days topped 23,000.

Banners demanding “Free elections” and “Travel law without restrictions” waved above the Leipzig crowd, and others challenged Communist Party supremacy, the official ADN news agency reported.

ADN said several hundred thousand people took part in what it called the biggest rally yet in Leipzig, where some of the largest protests in the pro-democracy campaign have been held.

Michael Turek, a Lutheran Church pastor in the southern industrial city of 650,000, said about 500,000 people marched. A mammoth rally Saturday in East Berlin, where the crowd was estimated at 1 million, was the largest protest in the Communist nation’s 40-year history.

ADN said members of New Forum, the largest pro-reforms group, addressed the crowd.

About 25,000 people marched in Schwerin for free elections, legalization of opposition groups and other reforms, the news agency reported. ARD television of West Germany said thousands rallied in Dresden.

Protests have become regular Monday night events in Dresden. Crowds at the last two were estimated at 300,000.

Earlier today, the government published a new draft law that is expected to take effect before Christmas and will permit travel abroad for up to 30 days a year.

In an unusually frank disclosure on the continuing exodus from the Communist nation, ADN said 23,200 East Germans had gone to West Germany since the suspension of exit rules Saturday.

Flight through Czechoslovakia continued and people who stayed behind said they were unimpressed by reforms introduced by Egon Krenz, the president and Communist Party chief who replaced his hard-line mentor, Erich Honecker, last month.

So far this year about 175,000 East Germans--more than 1% of the population--have moved to West Germany by emigrating legally, escaping or failing to return from approved trips abroad. West Germany gives them automatic citizenship and help in starting over.

Although the new law would allow travel abroad, East Germans pointed out that it retains old provisions giving authorities the right to refuse passports for vague reasons.