1926 Polish presidential elections

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1926 Polish presidential elections
Flag of Poland (1919-1928).svg
May election
  1922 31 May 1926June 1926 
 
Jozef Pilsudski1.jpg
Adolf Bninski.jpg
Nominee Józef Piłsudski Adolf Bniński
Party Independent National Democracy
Electoral vote292193
Percentage60.21%39.79%

President before election

Stanisław Wojciechowski
PSL

Elected President

Maciej Rataj (acting)
PSL

June election
 May 19261 June 1926 1933  
 
Ignace Moscicki LCCN2014717149.jpg
Adolf Bninski.jpg
Nominee Ignacy Mościcki Adolf Bniński
Party Independent National Democracy
Electoral vote281200
Percentage58.30%41.49%

President before election

Maciej Rataj (acting)
PSL

Elected President

Ignacy Mościcki
Independent

Professor Ignacy Moscicki was elected (and accepted) in place of Pilsudski Ignacy Moscicki.jpg
Professor Ignacy Mościcki was elected (and accepted) in place of Piłsudski

Two presidential elections were held in Poland in 1926. They followed the May Coup, which forced President Stanisław Wojciechowski and Prime Minister Wincenty Witos to resign and gave effective power to coup leader, Marshal Józef Piłsudski.

Contents

According to then Constitution President was elected by joint houses of Sejm and Senate (National Assembly).

31 May

There were two candidates: Piłsudski and supported by the National Democracy, Christian Democracy and Piast Adolf Bniński, Voivode of Poznań. Several other politicians were mentioned to run, most notably ousted President Wojciechowski, Sejm Marshal and now Acting President Maciej Rataj (Polish People's Party "Piast") and Senate Marshal Wojciech Trąmpczyński (National Democracy), but they declined to run.

Piłsudski was endorsed by left-wing groups and Biński was endorsed by National Democracy.

Piłsudski defeated Biński in a single round:

CandidateVotes%
Józef Piłsudski 29260.21
Adolf Bniński 19339.79
Total485100.00

However, following his election, Piłsudski refused to accept the presidency.

1 June

Pro-Piłsudskiite candidate selection

Pro-Piłsudskiite camp

Ignacy Mościcki
Ignace Moscicki LCCN2014717149.jpg
Chemist
Potential candidates
Ignacy MościckiArtur ŚliwińskiZdzisław LubomirskiMarian Zdziechowski
Ignace Moscicki LCCN2014717149.jpg
Sliwinski.png
Ksiaze Zdzislaw Lubomirski.png
Marian Zdziechowski 1933.png
Chemist Prime Minister of Poland
(1922)
Mayor of Warsaw
(1916-1917)
Philosopher

Following Piłsudski's refusal to accept the mantle of the presidency, four candidates were considered to replace him: Artur Śliwiński, Zdzisław Lubomirski, Ignacy Mościcki and Marian Zdziechowski. Śliwiński was a former Prime Minister, who failed to form a government with confidence of the Sejm, by 1926 he had become the director of the City Theater in Warsaw. Lubomirski and Zdziechowski, the most serious rivals to Mościcki, belonged to the "old conservative" movement. Lubomirski was a former Mayor of Warsaw and leader of the Regency Council in the Regency Kingdom of Poland, while Zdziechowski was a famous professor and political thinker. The possibility of their candidacies was eclipsed by Mościcki due to the initiative of incumbent Prime Minister Kazimierz Bartel. Mościcki was rather inexperienced in politics, as he was primarily a professional chemist. His political experience was limited to being a rank and file member in the illegal Polish socialist movement during the 19th century in the Russian partition, so he was assumed to be mostly a loyalist to Piłsudski. [1]

Election

The Polish Socialist Party, who had previously supported Piłsudski, filed their candidate - Sejm Caucus Chair Zygmunt Marek, a man who had officially nominated Piłsudski a day earlier. Bniński ran again.

CandidateFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Ignacy Mościcki 21544.6128158.30
Adolf Bniński 21143.7820041.49
Zygmunt Marek 5611.6210.21
Total482100.00482100.00

Mościcki accepted his election.

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References

  1. Cat-Mackiewicz, Stanisław (2012). Historia Polski od 11 listopada 1918 do 17 września 1939. Universitas. ISBN   97883-242-3740-1.