1991 Polish parliamentary election

1991 Polish parliamentary election

27 October 1991 (1991-10-27)
All 460 seats in the Sejm 231 seats were needed for a majority in the Sejm All 100 seats in the Senate
Turnout	43.2%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Tadeusz Mazowiecki Aleksander Kwaśniewski Wiesław Chrzanowski Party UD Democratic Left Alliance Catholic Election Action Leader since May 1991 30 January 1990 28 October 1989 Leader's seat Poznań Warsaw Lublin Last election Did not exist 173 seats, 37.6% Did not exist Seats before 49 102 Seats won 62 60 49 Seat change 13 42 New Popular vote 1,382,051 1,344,820 980,304 Percentage 12.3% 12.0% 8.7% Swing New 25.6% New   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Jarosław Kaczyński Waldemar Pawlak Leszek Moczulski Party POC PSL KPN Leader since 12 May 1990 29 June 1991 1 September 1979 Leader's seat Warsaw Płock Kraków Last election Did not exist 76 seats, 16.5% none Seats won 44 48 46 Seat change New 28 46 Popular vote 977,344 972,952 841,738 Percentage 8.7% 8.7% 7.5% Swing New 7.8% 7.5%   Seventh party Eighth party Ninth party   Leader Donald Tusk Józef Ślisz Marian Krzaklewski Party KLD PSL-PL NSZZ „S” Leader since 19 May 1991 1991 23 February 1991 Leader's seat Gdańsk Did not stand Did not stand Last election none none none Seats won 37 28 28 Seat change New New New Popular vote 839,978 613,626 566,553 Percentage 7.5% 5.5% 5.1% Swing New New New
Seats won by Sejm District
Prime Minister before election Jan Krzysztof Bielecki KLD New Prime Minister Jan Olszewski Centre Agreement

The 1991 Polish parliamentary election was held on 27 October 1991 to elect deputies to both houses of the National Assembly. 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, and only the fifth completely free election in all of Polish history. Due to the collapse of the Solidarity movement's political wing, the 1991 election saw deep political fragmentation, with a multitude of new parties and alliances emerging in its wake. 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. 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 Center Civic Alliance, and the Peasants' Agreement, with conditional support from Polish People's Party, Solidarity and other minor parties.

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, 11,218,602 (94.4%) of those 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 frivolous Polish Beer-Lovers' Party with 16 seats gained news coverage worldwide.

Results

Voivodeships with winning majority
■ – Democratic Union
■ – Democratic Left Alliance
■ – Polish People's Party
■ – Catholic Election Action
■ – Peasants' Agreement
■ – Civic Center Alliance
■ – Liberal Democratic Congress
■ – Confederation of Independent Poland
■ – Independent
■ – German Minority

Results of the Sejm election, showing vote strength by electoral district.

Sejm

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Democratic Union	1,382,051	12.32	62
	Democratic Left Alliance	1,344,820	11.99	60
	Catholic Election Action	980,304	8.74	49
	Center Civic Alliance	977,344	8.71	44
	Polish People's Party	972,952	8.67	48
	Confederation of Independent Poland	841,738	7.50	46
	Liberal Democratic Congress	839,978	7.49	37
	Peasants' Agreement	613,626	5.47	28
	Solidarity	566,553	5.05	27
	Polish Beer-Lovers' Party	367,106	3.27	16
	Christian Democracy	265,179	2.36	5
	Real Politics Union	253,024	2.26	3
	Labour Solidarity	230,975	2.06	4
	Democratic Party	159,017	1.42	1
	German Minority Electoral Committee	132,059	1.18	7
	Party of Christian Democrats	125,314	1.12	4
	Party X	52,735	0.47	3
	Democratic-Social Movement	51,656	0.46	1
	Ludowe Porozumienie Wyborcze "Piast"	42,031	0.37	1
	Silesian Autonomy Movement	40,061	0.36	2
	Solidarni z Prezydentem	27,586	0.25	1
	Związek Podhalan	26,744	0.24	1
	Polski Związek Zachodni	26,053	0.23	4
	Wielkopolsce i Polsce	23,188	0.21	1
	Jedności Ludowej	18,902	0.17	1
	Prawosławnych	13,788	0.12	1
	Solidarność 80	12,769	0.11	1
	Unia Wielkopolan	9,019	0.08	1
	Sojusz Kobiet	1,922	0.02	1
	Local lists and independents	820,108	7.31	0
Total		11,218,602	100.00	460
Valid votes		11,218,602	94.37
Invalid/blank votes		669,347	5.63
Total votes		11,887,949	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		27,517,280	43.20
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Popular vote (Sejm) UD   12.32% SLD   11.99% WAK   8.74% POC   8.71% PSL   8.67% KPN   7.50% KLD   7.49% PL   5.47% "S"   5.05% PPPP   3.27% Others   20.54%

Parliament seats (Sejm) UD   13.48% SLD   13.04% WAK   10.65% PSL   10.43% KPN   10.00% POC   9.57% KLD   8.04% PL   6.09% "S"   5.87% PPPP   3.48% Others   9.35%

Senate

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Democratic Union	3,764,156	16.42	21
	Democratic Left Alliance	2,431,178	10.61	4
	Solidarity	2,219,160	9.68	11
	Center Civic Alliance	2,071,045	9.04	9
	Catholic Election Action	1,995,866	8.71	9
	Polish People's Party	1,691,566	7.38	7
	Liberal Democratic Congress	1,497,718	6.53	6
	Confederation of Independent Poland	1,071,364	4.67	4
	Peasants' Agreement	719,778	3.14	5
	Party of Christian Democrats	507,722	2.22	3
	Democratic Party	453,721	1.98	0
	Party X	417,857	1.82	0
	Real Politics Union	371,891	1.62	0
	Local lists and independents	3,708,344	16.18	21
Total		22,921,366	100.00	100
Valid votes		11,474,846	96.53
Invalid/blank votes		413,019	3.47
Total votes		11,887,865	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		27,517,280	43.20
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

• Obwieszczenie Państwowej Komisji Wyborczej z dn. 31 X 1991 r., Monitor Polski. Nr 41, poz. 288
• Obwieszczenie PKW z dn. 30 X 1991 r., M.P. Nr 41, poz. 287