Polish legislative election, 1952

Polish legislative election, 1952
1947 ←
 October 26, 1952 (1952-10-26)
 → 1957
All 425 seats in the Sejm
Turnout 95.00%
  First party
 
Leader Bolesław Bierut
Party FJN - PZPR
Leader since December 22, 1948
Leader's seat Warsaw-Prague
Seats won 388 (PZPR - 273, ZSL - 90, SD - 25), 91.2%
Premier before election

Józef Cyrankiewicz
PZPR

 Premier

Józef Cyrankiewicz
PZPR

The Polish legislative election of 1952 was the first election to the Sejm, the parliament of the People's Republic of Poland, and second in Communist Poland. They took place on 26 October. The official rules for the elections were outlined in the new Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland and lesser acts.

Contents

Background

The elections, as all others held under the communist regime in Poland, were not free and were falsified, again a common occurrence of that time. Along with the Polish legislative election of 1947 they are considered the least free of the elections in Poland, an occurrence common during the era of Stalinization when the communist government tried to tighten its control over society as much as possible. The opposition was persecuted, including through arrests and torture, and not allowed to run in the elections. Candidates were vetted by the Communist party organization, Front Jedności Narodowej, and the number of candidates permitted to run in the elections was equal to the number of seats in parliament.[1]

There were 425 seats.[2] The number of seats would be increased in the subsequent elections.[2]

Results

The results were as follows:[2]

Party Seats  %
Polish United Workers' Party 273 64.2%
United People's Party 90 21.3%
Independents 37 8.7%
Democratic Party (Poland) 25 5.9%

The official results showed that 99.8% of the Communist party's candidates were successful. Candidates from the FJN parties took 91.2% of the Sejm, with 8.7% falling to the nominal "independents." PZPR, with 273 seats (64.2% total), achieved its best result ever, both in total number of seats and percentage of the Sejm controlled.[2] However, as the other parties and "independents" were in fact subordinate to PZPR, its control of the Sejm was, in fact, total.[3][2] Such sham elections would continue till the Polish legislative election, 1989.

The Sejm elected in 1951 was supposed to be replaced in elections of 1956, but due to political shifts in Poland, the new elections took place in early 1957 in a more liberal atmosphere, although still not free.[1]

The reported turnout was 95%.

See also

Elections and referendums in Poland
Royal elections
1573 · 1576 · 1587 · 1632 · 1648 · 1669 · 1674 · 1697 · 1704 · 1709 · 1733 (Stanisław Leszczyński) · 1733 (Augustus III) · 1764
Parliamentary elections
1919 · 1922 · 1928 · 1930 · 1935 · 1938 · 1947 · 1952 · 1957 · 1961 · 1965 · 1969 · 1972 · 1976 · 1980 · 1985 · 1989 · 1991 · 1993 · 1997 · 2001 · 2005 · 2007 · 2011
Presidential elections
1922 (9 Dec) · 1922 (20 Dec) · 1926 (May) · 1926 (Jun) · 1933 · 1947 · 1990 · 1995 · 2000 · 2005 · 2010
Local elections
1990 · 1994 · 1998 · 2002 · 2006 · 2010
European elections
Referendums
1920 · 1921 · 1946 · 1987 · 1996 · 1997 · 2003

External links

Further reading

References

  1. ^ a b (Polish) Bartłomiej Kozłowski, Wybory styczniowe do Sejmu 1957 Last accessed on 5 April 2007
  2. ^ a b c d e Norman Davies (May 2005). God's Playground: 1795 to the present. Columbia University Press. p. 459. ISBN 9780231128193. http://books.google.com/books?id=EBpghdZeIwAC&pg=PA459. Retrieved 3 June 2011. 
  3. ^ Andrzej Paczkowski; Jane Cave (2003). The spring will be ours: Poland and the Poles from occupation to freedom. Penn State Press. p. 229. ISBN 9780271023083. http://books.google.com/books?id=WoKQWem2yl4C&pg=PA229. Retrieved 3 June 2011.