Polish parliamentary election, 1991

Polish parliamentary election, 1991
Poland
27 October 1991 (1991-10-27)

All 460 seats in the Sejm
231 seats were needed for a majority in the Sejm
All 100 seats in the Senate
Turnout 43.2%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Tadeusz Mazowiecki Aleksander Kwaśniewski Wiesław Chrzanowski
Party UD SLD WAK
Leader since May 1991 30 January 1990 28 October 1989
Leader's seat Poznań Warsaw Lublin
Last election Did not exist 173 seats, 37.6% Did not exist
Seats before 49[1] 102[1]
Seats won 62 60 49
Seat change Increase 13 Decrease 42 Increase 49
Popular vote 1,382,051 1,344,820 980,304
Percentage 12.3% 12.0% 8.7%
Swing Increase 12.3% Decrease 25.6% Increase 8.7%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Jarosław Kaczyński Waldemar Pawlak Leszek Moczulski
Party POC PSL KPN
Leader since 12 May 1990 29 June 1991 1 September 1979
Leader's seat Warsaw Płock Kraków
Last election Did not exist 76 seats, 16.5% none
Seats won 44 48 46
Seat change Increase 44 Decrease 28 Increase 46
Popular vote 977,344 972,952 841,738
Percentage 8.7% 8.7% 7.5%
Swing Increase 8.7% Decrease 7.8% Increase 7.5%

Voivodeships with winning majority

– Democratic Union – Democratic Left Alliance
– Polish People's Party – Catholic Election Action
– Peasants' Agreement – Civic Center Alliance
– Liberal Democratic Congress – Confederation of Independent Poland
– Independent – German Minority


Prime Minister before election

Jan Krzysztof Bielecki
KLD

New Prime Minister

Jan Olszewski
Centre Agreement

The 1991 Polish parliamentary election was held on 27 October 1991 to elect deputies to both houses of the National Assembly.[2] The 1991 election was notable on several counts. It was the first to be held since the formation of the Third Republic, the first entirely free and competitive election since the fall of communism, the first completely free national election of any sort since 1928, and only the fourth free election in all of Polish history. Due to the collapse of the Solidarity movement's political wing, the 1991 election saw deep political fragmentation, with a multitude of new parties and alliances emerging in its wake.[3] Low voting thresholds within individual constituencies, along with a five percent national threshold allocated to a small portion of the Sejm, additionally contributed to party fragmentation.[4] As a result, 29 political parties gained entry into the Sejm and 22 in the Senate, with no party forming a decisive majority. Two months of intense coalition negotiations followed, with Jan Olszewski of the Centre Agreement forming a minority government along with the Christian National Union, remnants of the broader Center Civic Alliance, and the Peasants' Agreement, with conditional support from Polish People's Party, Solidarity and other minor parties.[5]

460 members of parliament (poseł) were elected; 391 from 6980 candidates from 37 regional lists of candidates and 69 from country-wide lists of candidates.In the Sejm elections, 27,517,280 citizens were eligible to vote, 11,887,949 (43.2%) of them cast their votes, 11,218,602 (94.4%) of those were counted as valid. In the Senate elections, 43.2% of citizens cast their votes, 96.5% were valid.

Elections were supervised by the National Electoral Commission (Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza). 37 regional (okręgowe) commissions were formed, and 22,341 district (obwodowe), staffed by 197,389 citizens.

A remarkable 111 parties competed and 29 parties (listed below) won Parliamentary seats. The success of the frivolous Polish Beer-Lovers' Party with 16 seats gained news coverage worldwide.

Results

Party Sejm Senate
Votes % Seats Votes % Seats
Democratic Union1,382,05112.3623,764,15632.821
Democratic Left Alliance1,344,82012.0602,431,17821.24
Catholic Election Action980,3048.7491,995,86617.49
Center Civic Alliance977,3448.7442,071,04518.09
Polish People's Party972,9528.7481,691,56614.77
Confederation of Independent Poland841,7387.5461,071,3649.34
Liberal Democratic Congress839,9787.5371,497,71813.16
Peasants' Agreement613,6265.528719,7786.35
Solidarity566,5535.1272,219,16019.311
Polish Beer-Lovers' Party367,1063.316
Christian Democracy265,1792.45
Real Politics Union253,0242.33371,8912.20
Labour Solidarity230,9752.14
Democratic Party159,0171.41453,7214.00
German Minority132,0591.27
Party of Christian Democrats125,3141.14507,7224.43
Party X52,7350.53417,8573.60
Democratic-Social Movement51,6560.51
Ludowe Porozumienie Wyborcze "Piast"42,0310.41
Silesian Autonomy Movement40,0610.42
Solidarni z Prezydentem27,5860.21
Związek Podhalan26,7440.21
Polski Związek Zachodni26,0530.24
Wielkopolsce i Polsce23,1880.21
Jedności Ludowej18,9020.21
Prawosławnych13,7880.11
Solidarność 8012,7690.11
Unia Wielkopolan9,0190.01
Sojusz Kobiet1,9220.01
Local lists and independents820,1087.303,708,34432.321
Invalid/blank votes669,347413,019
Total11,887,94910046011,887,865100100
Registered voters/turnout27,517,28043.225,517,28043.2
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

  1. 1 2 "Posłowie X kadencji (Members of the X Sejm)". Sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
  2. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  3. Millard, Francis (September 1994). "The Shaping of the Polish Party System, 1989-93". East European Politics & Societies. 8 (3): 467–494. doi:10.1177/0888325494008003005.
  4. Lundberg, Thomas. "Political Transition in Hungary and Poland". Voting and Democracy Report: 1995. Center for Voting and Democracy. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  5. Jasiewicz, Krzysztof (1 January 1992). "From Solidarity to Fragmentation" (PDF). Journal of Democracy. 3 (2): 55–69. doi:10.1353/jod.1992.0024. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
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