1991 Polish parliamentary election

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 parliamentary election to be held since the formation of the Third Republic, the first entirely free and competitive legislative election since the fall of communism, the first completely free legislative election of any sort since 1928, and only the fifth completely 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 holding 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]

1991 Polish parliamentary election

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
Turnout43.2%
  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 13 42 New
Popular vote 1,382,051 1,344,820 980,304
Percentage 12.3% 12.0% 8.7%
Swing New 25.6% New

  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 New 28 46
Popular vote 977,344 972,952 841,738
Percentage 8.7% 8.7% 7.5%
Swing New 7.8% 7.5%

  Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party
 
Leader Donald Tusk Józef Ślisz Marian Krzaklewski
Party KLD PSL-PL NSZZ „S”
Leader since 19 May 1991 1991 23 February 1991
Leader's seat Gdańsk Did not stand Did not stand
Last election none none none
Seats won 37 28 28
Seat change New New New
Popular vote 839,978 613,626 566,553
Percentage 7.5% 5.5% 5.1%
Swing New New New

Seats won by Sejm District

Prime Minister before election

Jan Krzysztof Bielecki
KLD

New Prime Minister

Jan Olszewski
Centre Agreement

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

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
Results of the Sejm election, showing vote strength by electoral district.

Sejm

PartyVotes%Seats
Democratic Union1,382,05112.3262
Democratic Left Alliance1,344,82011.9960
Catholic Election Action980,3048.7449
Center Civic Alliance977,3448.7144
Polish People's Party972,9528.6748
Confederation of Independent Poland841,7387.5046
Liberal Democratic Congress839,9787.4937
Peasants' Agreement613,6265.4728
Solidarity566,5535.0527
Polish Beer-Lovers' Party367,1063.2716
Christian Democracy265,1792.365
Real Politics Union253,0242.263
Labour Solidarity230,9752.064
Democratic Party159,0171.421
German Minority Electoral Committee132,0591.187
Party of Christian Democrats125,3141.124
Party X52,7350.473
Democratic-Social Movement51,6560.461
Ludowe Porozumienie Wyborcze "Piast"42,0310.371
Silesian Autonomy Movement40,0610.362
Solidarni z Prezydentem27,5860.251
Związek Podhalan26,7440.241
Polski Związek Zachodni26,0530.234
Wielkopolsce i Polsce23,1880.211
Jedności Ludowej18,9020.171
Prawosławnych13,7880.121
Solidarność 8012,7690.111
Unia Wielkopolan9,0190.081
Sojusz Kobiet1,9220.021
Local lists and independents820,1087.310
Total11,218,602100.00460
Valid votes11,218,60294.37
Invalid/blank votes669,3475.63
Total votes11,887,949100.00
Registered voters/turnout27,517,28043.20
Source: Nohlen & Stöver
Popular vote (Sejm)
UD
12.32%
SLD
11.99%
WAK
8.74%
POC
8.71%
PSL
8.67%
KPN
7.50%
KLD
7.49%
PL
5.47%
"S"
5.05%
PPPP
3.27%
Others
20.54%
Parliament seats (Sejm)
UD
13.48%
SLD
13.04%
WAK
10.65%
PSL
10.43%
KPN
10.00%
POC
9.57%
KLD
8.04%
PL
6.09%
"S"
5.87%
PPPP
3.48%
Others
9.35%

Senate

PartyVotes%Seats
Democratic Union3,764,15616.4221
Democratic Left Alliance2,431,17810.614
Solidarity2,219,1609.6811
Center Civic Alliance2,071,0459.049
Catholic Election Action1,995,8668.719
Polish People's Party1,691,5667.387
Liberal Democratic Congress1,497,7186.536
Confederation of Independent Poland1,071,3644.674
Peasants' Agreement719,7783.145
Party of Christian Democrats507,7222.223
Democratic Party453,7211.980
Party X417,8571.820
Real Politics Union371,8911.620
Local lists and independents3,708,34416.1821
Total22,921,366100.00100
Valid votes11,474,84696.53
Invalid/blank votes413,0193.47
Total votes11,887,865100.00
Registered voters/turnout27,517,28043.20
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

  1. "Posłowie X kadencji (Members of the X Sejm)". Sejm.gov.pl. Retrieved 8 January 2015.
  2. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (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. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  • Obwieszczenie Państwowej Komisji Wyborczej z dn. 31 X 1991 r., Monitor Polski. Nr 41, poz. 288
  • Obwieszczenie PKW z dn. 30 X 1991 r., M.P. Nr 41, poz. 287
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