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

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

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, the Front of National Unity, and the number of candidates permitted to run in the elections was equal to the number of seats in parliament.

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

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
Front of National Unity	Polish United Workers' Party	15,459,849	99.8	273
	United People's Party			90
	Democratic Party			25
	Independents			37
Blank ballots		31,321	0.2	–
Invalid votes		4,645	–	–
Total		15,495,815	100	425
Registered voters/turnout		16,305,891	95.0	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

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. However, as the other parties and "independents" were in fact subordinate to PZPR, its control of the Sejm was, in fact, total. Sham elections would continue until 1989.

The term of the Sejm elected in 1951 was due to finish in 1956, but due to political shifts in Poland, the next elections took place in early 1957 in a more liberal atmosphere, although still not free.

Further reading

• Jerzy Drygalski, Jacek Kwasniewski, No-Choice Elections, Soviet Studies, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Apr., 1990), pp. 295-315, JSTOR
• George Sakwa, Martin Crouch, Sejm Elections in Communist Poland: An Overview and a Reappraisal, British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Oct., 1978), pp. 403-424,