1989 Polish parliamentary election

1989 Polish parliamentary election

← 1985 4 June 1989 (1989-06-04) (first round)
18 June 1989 (1989-06-18) (second round)
1991 →

All 460 seats in the Sejm
231 needed for a majority
161 up for free election
All 100 seats in the Senate
Turnout62.7% (first round)
25% (second round)
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski 13 grudnia 1981.JPG
Lech Wałęsa prezydent RP.jpg
Roman_Malinowski.jpg
Leader Wojciech Jaruzelski Lech Wałęsa Roman Malinowski
Party PZPR KO "S" ZSL
Leader since 18 October 1981 18 December 1988 (of political party) 1981
Last election 255 seats Outlawed 117 seats
Seats won 173 (Sejm)
0 (Senate)
161 (Sejm)
99 (Senate)
76 (Sejm)
0 (Senate)
Seat change Decrease 72 New Decrease 41
Popular vote 22,734,348 16,369,237 8,865,102
Percentage 37.6% 35.0% 16.5%

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Tadeusz Witold Młyńczak.jpg
Zenon Komender.jpg
Kazimierz Morawski.jpg
Leader Tadeusz Witold Młyńczak Zenon Komender Kazimierz Morawski
Party SD PAX UChS
Leader since 1976 1982 1989
Last election 39 seats 9
Seats won 27 (Sejm)
0 (Senate)
10 (Sejm)
0 (Senate)
8 (Sejm)
0 (Senate)
Seat change Decrease 12 Increase 1 New
Popular vote 3,961,124 1,216,681 907,901
Percentage 5.8% 2.1% 1.7%

Results by constituency, shaded according to the winner's vote share in the competitive seats in each district. Solidarity won all of the 161 competitive races.

Government before election

Rakowski cabinet
PZPRZSLSD (Communist regime)

Government after election

Mazowiecki cabinet[a]
SolidarityZSLSD (Contract Sejm)

Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 4 June 1989 to elect members of the Sejm and the recreated Senate, with a second round on 18 June. They were the first elections in the country since the communist government abandoned its monopoly of power in April 1989 and the first elections in the Eastern Bloc that resulted in the communist government losing power.

Not all seats in the Sejm were allowed to be contested, but the resounding victory of the Solidarity opposition in the freely contested races (the rest of the Sejm seats and all of the Senate) paved the way to the end of communist rule in Poland. Solidarity won all of the freely contested seats in the Sejm, and all but one seat in the Senate, which was scored by an independent candidate. Most crucially, the election served as a litmus test showing how extremely anti-government the attitude of the nation was. In the aftermath of the election, Poland became the first country of the Eastern Bloc in which democratically elected representatives gained real power.[1] Although the elections were not entirely democratic, they led to the formation of a government led by Tadeusz Mazowiecki and a peaceful transition to democracy in Poland and elsewhere in Central and Eastern Europe.[2][3][4]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hill1992 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Geoffrey Pridham (1994). Democratization in Eastern Europe: domestic and international perspectives. Psychology Press. p. 176. ISBN 978-0-415-11063-1. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  3. ^ Olav Njølstad (2004). The last decade of the Cold War: from conflict escalation to conflict transformation. Psychology Press. p. 59. ISBN 978-0-7146-8539-7. Retrieved 4 June 2011.
  4. ^ Atsuko Ichijō; Willfried Spohn (2005). Entangled identities: nations and Europe. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 166. ISBN 978-0-7546-4372-2. Retrieved 4 June 2011.

© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search