1991 Polish parliamentary election

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1991 Polish parliamentary election
Flag of Poland.svg
  1989 27 October 1991 (1991-10-27) 1993  
Turnout43.20%
Sejm

All 460 seats in the Sejm
231 seats needed for a majority
PartyLeader%Seats
UD Tadeusz Mazowiecki 12.3262
SLD Aleksander Kwaśniewski 11.9960
WAK Wiesław Chrzanowski 8.7449
POC Jarosław Kaczyński 8.7144
PSL Waldemar Pawlak 8.6748
KPN Leszek Moczulski 7.5046
KLD Donald Tusk 7.4937
PSL-PL Józef Ślisz  [ pl ]5.4728
KO "S" Marian Krzaklewski 5.0527
PPPP Janusz Rewiński  [ pl ]3.2716
ChD N/A2.365
UPR Janusz Korwin-Mikke 2.263
SP R. Bugaj & K. Modzelewski 2.064
SD Aleksander Mackiewicz 1.421
KWMN Henryk Kroll 1.187
PChD Krzysztof Pawłowski  [ pl ]1.124
X Stanisław Tymiński 0.473
RDS Zbigniew Bujak 0.461
LPW "Piast" [lower-alpha 1] N/A0.371
RAŚ Paweł Musioł  [ pl ]0.362
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Senate

All 100 seats in the Senate
51 seats needed for a majority
Party%Seats
UD 16.4221
SLD 10.614
KO "S" 9.6811
POC 9.049
WAK 8.719
PSL 7.387
KLD 6.536
KPN 4.674
PSL-PL 3.145
PChD 2.223
Independents 16.1821
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
1991 Polish parliamentary election.svg
Sejm results by electoral district
Government beforeGovernment after election
Bielecki cabinet  [ pl ]
KLDUDPCZChNSD
Olszewski cabinet
PCZChNPSL-PLSLCh  [ pl ]

Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 27 October 1991 to elect deputies to both houses of the National Assembly. [1] 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. Due to the collapse of the Solidarity political wing, the Solidarity Citizens' Committee, the 1991 election saw deep political fragmentation, with a multitude of new parties and alliances emerging in its wake. [2] 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. [3] 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 Centre Civic Alliance, and the Peasants' Agreement, with conditional support from Polish People's Party, Solidarity list and other minor parties. [4]

Contents

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 and 11,218,602 (94.4%) of the votes 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 satirical Polish Beer-Lovers' Party with 16 seats gained news coverage worldwide.

Results

Sejm

PartyVotes%Seats
Democratic Union 1,382,05112.3262
Democratic Left Alliance 1,344,82011.9960
Catholic Electoral Action 980,3048.7449
Centre Civic Alliance 977,3448.7144
Polish People's Party 972,9528.6748
Confederation of Independent Poland 841,7387.5046
Liberal Democratic Congress 839,9787.4937
Peasants' Agreement 613,6265.4728
Solidarity 566,5535.0527
Polish Beer-Lovers' Party 367,1063.2716
Christian Democracy 265,1792.365
Real Politics Union 253,0242.263
Labour Solidarity 230,9752.064
Democratic Party 159,0171.421
German Minority Electoral Committee 132,0591.187
Party of Christian Democrats 125,3141.124
Party X 52,7350.473
Democratic-Social Movement 51,6560.461
Ludowe Porozumienie Wyborcze "Piast" [lower-alpha 1] 42,0310.371
Silesian Autonomy Movement 40,0610.362
Solidarni z Prezydentem [lower-alpha 2] 27,5860.251
Związek Podhalan  [ pl ]26,7440.241
Polski Związek Zachodni [lower-alpha 3] 26,0530.234
Wielkopolsce i Polsce  [ pl ]23,1880.211
Jedności Ludowej [lower-alpha 4] 18,9020.171
Orthodox Electoral Committee 13,7880.121
Solidarność 80 12,7690.111
Unia Wielkopolan  [ pl ]9,0190.081
Alliance of Women Against the Hardships of Life [lower-alpha 5] 1,9220.021
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

By constituency

No.ConstituencyTotal
seats
Seats won
UD SLD WAK PSL KPN POC KLD PL KO "S" PPPP KWMN Others
1Warsaw I1732113313
2Warsaw II81111121
3Płock10111211111
4Łódź12222111111
5Piotrków Trybunalski71111111
6Konin911121111
7Radom81121111
8Kielce11121211111
9Częstochowa811111111
10Opole1011111113
11Wroclaw12321111111
12Wałbrzych811111111
13Jelenia Góra11221111111
14Zielona Góra11121211111
15Kalisz71111111
16Toruń11121111112
17Bydgoszcz11121111112
18Poznań142211111113
19Gorzów Wielkopolski10121111111
20Szczecin10211111111
21Koszalin91111113
22Gdańsk152121113121
23Olsztyn132212111111
24Ostrołęka1211321121
25Białystok12122111112
26Siedlce101112113
27Zamość71111111
28Lublin10111121111
29Rzeszów13112211212
30Przemyśl911121111
31Tarnów7111112
32Nowy Sącz71111111
33Kraków1331112113
34Bielsko-Biała9111111111
35Sosnowiec1012121111
36Katowice172211122114
37Gliwice132111111113
National list691110778765431
Total46062604948464437282716736
Source: National Electoral Commission

Senate

PartyVotes%Seats
Democratic Union 3,764,15616.4221
Democratic Left Alliance 2,431,17810.614
Solidarity 2,219,1609.6811
Centre Civic Alliance 2,071,0459.049
Catholic Electoral Action 1,995,8668.719
Polish People's Party 1,691,5667.387
Liberal Democratic Congress 1,497,7186.536
Confederation of Independent Poland 1,071,3644.674
Peasants' Agreement 719,7783.145
Party of Christian Democrats 507,7222.223
Democratic Party 453,7211.980
Party X 417,8571.820
Real Politics Union 371,8911.620
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

By voivodeship

VoivodeshipTotal seatsSeats won
UD KO "S" POC WAK PSL KLD PL SLD KPN PChD Others
Biała Podlaska 211
Białystok 211
Bielsko 211
Bydgoszcz 211
Chełm 211
Ciechanów 211
Częstochowa 211
Elbląg 211
Gdańsk 211
Gorzów 211
Jelenia Góra 211
Kalisz 22
Katowice 3111
Kielce 211
Konin 211
Koszalin 211
Kraków 211
Krosno 211
Legnica 211
Leszno 211
Lublin 211
Łomża 22
Łódź 211
Nowy Sącz 211
Olsztyn 211
Opole 211
Ostrołęka 211
Piła 22
Piotrków 211
Płock 211
Poznań 211
Przemyśl 211
Radom 211
Rzeszów 211
Siedlce 22
Sieradz 211
Skierniewice 211
Słupsk 211
Suwałki 211
Szczecin 211
Tarnobrzeg 211
Tarnów 211
Toruń 211
Wałbrzych 22
Warsaw 321
Włocławek 22
Wrocław 211
Zamość 211
Zielona Góra 211
Total10021119986744318
Source: National Electoral Commission

Notes

  1. 1 2 Regional electoral list of the Polish People's Party in Tarnów Voivodeship. [5]
  2. Regional electoral list of the Catholic Electoral Action in Kraków Voivodeship. [5]
  3. Regional electoral list of the Confederation of Independent Poland in Kraków Voivodeship. [5]
  4. Regional electoral list of the Polish People's Party in Bydgoszcz Voivodeship. [5]
  5. Regional electoral list of the Confederation of Independent Poland in Kraków Voivodeship. [5]

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