1922 Polish legislative election

Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 5 November 1922, with Senate elections held a week later on 12 November.[1] The elections were governed by the March Constitution of Poland, and saw the Christian Union of National Unity coalition emerge as the largest bloc in the Sejm with 163 of the 444 seats.

1922 Polish legislative election

5 November 1922 (1922-11-05) (Sejm)
12 November 1922 (1922-11-12) (Senat)

All 444 seats to the Sejm
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Leader Stanisław Głąbiński Yitzhak Gruenbaum Wincenty Witos
Party ChZJN BMN PSL Piast
Leader since November 1920 1922 1 December 1918
Leader's seat 50 – Lwów 1 - Warszawa 84 - Tarnów
Last election 140 46
Seats won 163 66 70
Seat change 23 New 24
Popular vote 2,551,582 1,398,250 1,153,397
Percentage 29.1% 16.0% 13.2%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Stanisław Thugutt Ignacy Daszyński Jan Stanisław Jankowski
Party PSL "Wyzwolenie" PPS NPR
Leader since 1921 1921 1920
Leader's seat 15 - Konin 42 - Kraków county none
Last election 59 35 32
Seats won 49 41 18
Seat change 10 6 14
Popular vote 963,385 906,537 473,676
Percentage 11.0% 10.3% 5.4%

The resulting coalitions were unstable, and the situation - difficult from the start, with assassination of Polish president Gabriel Narutowicz in December shortly after the elections - culminated in 1926 with the May Coup.

Results

Sejm

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Christian Union of National Unity2,551,58229.12163+23
Bloc of National Minorities1,398,25015.9666New
Polish People's Party "Piast"1,153,39713.1670+24
Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie"963,38510.9949–10
Polish Socialist Party906,53710.3541+6
National Workers' Party473,6765.4118–14
Jewish Group405,9614.6318+7
Polish Centre259,9562.976
Ukrainian Group136,0441.555
Communist Party of Poland121,4481.392
Radical Peasant Party115,5151.324New
Polish People's Party "Left"59,1040.672–10
People's Council46,3170.530
National-State Union38,1600.440
Urban Centre29,6530.340
Invalids and Demobilised Soldiers11,8710.140
Others91,8421.050
Total8,762,698100.00444+50
Valid votes8,762,69899.33
Invalid/blank votes58,9770.67
Total votes8,821,675100.00
Registered voters/turnout12,989,71867.91
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Senate

PartyVotes%Seats
Christian Union of National Unity2,173,75638.7048
Bloc of National Minorities977,07517.4023
Polish People's Party "Piast"729,62212.9917
Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie"529,6759.438
Polish Socialist Party468,1478.347
National Workers' Party291,7795.203
Jewish Group179,6263.204
Radical Peasant Party56,3391.000
Państwowe Zjednoczenie na Kresach55,9531.001
Polish Centre55,8050.990
Communist Party of Poland51,0940.910
Polish People's Party "Left"25,3620.450
Union of People's Councils10,0960.180
Urban Centre3,1110.060
National-State Union2,3380.040
Others6,7130.120
Total5,616,491100.00111
Valid votes5,616,49199.35
Invalid/blank votes36,8380.65
Total votes5,653,329100.00
Registered voters/turnout9,085,69062.22
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Ethnoreligious voting analysis

According to Kopstein and Wittenberg, 39% of the majority Catholic population voted for right-wing parties, 29% for non-revolutionary left-wing parties and 25% for centrist parties. The other ethnoreligious groups, including Uniates, Jews and Orthodox Christians voted largely for parties representing minority groups.[2]

Some regional differences were observed; in western Poland, 9% of the Catholic vote went to minority interest parties, which has been attributed in part to German Catholic voting, but in the east, only 1% did. Ethnic Polish support for the right wing was stronger in the east of the country, where 40% voted for right-wing parties, as opposed to the south where 16% did. No detectable regional variation existed among Jews.[3] The lack of support for the center and right among the major minorities (Jews, Ukrainians and Belarusians) was attributed to ethnic polarization that was exacerbated by discrimination and chauvinism from Polish officials.[4] Despite the success of minority parties, parties describing themselves as "Polish" refused to form a government with minority parties, and there was not one non-ethnic Polish cabinet member in the interwar period, though interethnic cooperation could still be seen in Ukrainian and Belarusian support for the Sikorski government.[3]

Estimates of voting patterns by ethnoreligious groups
ReligionCommunistsNonrevolutionary leftMinority interest partiesCenterRight-wingOverall share (1921 census)
Catholic2%29%4%25%39%64%
Uniate3%2%77%1%5%12%
Orthodox Christian8%37%66%1%1%10%
Jewish4%18%65%2%4%11%
Overall share (1921 census)2%16%24%25%34%

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. Jeffrey S. Kopstein & Jason Wittenberg. "Who voted communist? Reconsidering the social bases of radicalism in interwar Poland." Slavic Review 62.1 (2003): pp87-109
  3. Kopstein & Wittenberg, p99
  4. Kopstein & Wittenberg, p98

Further reading

  • A. J. Groth, Polish Elections 1919-1928, Slavic Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Dec., 1965), pp. 653–665 JSTOR
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