|
Poland The Parliamentary Elections of October 1991
Over Walesa's veto, the Sejm version of the
parliamentary
election bill became law in mid-1991. Elections were
scheduled
for the following October. During the months before the
election,
Walesa refused to endorse any of the numerous
post-Solidarity
parties and other parties that fielded slates of
candidates. He
remained noncommittal, distancing himself even from the
Center
Alliance, which had been his core of support during the
presidential election. In fact, Walesa defended the
Bielecki
government from attacks by the Center Alliance. The
president
participated in the parliamentary campaign only by urging
voters
to defeat former communist candidates who had joined other
parties after the dissolution of the PZPR.
As Walesa had predicted, the first election held under
the
new election law produced a badly fragmented parliament.
Only 43
percent of the electorate voted in the first totally free
parliamentary elections since 1928. Twenty-nine parties
won seats
in the new Sejm, but none received more than 14 percent of
the
vote. Both extremes of the political spectrum fared well,
while
the moderate post-Solidarity parties failed to win the
expected
majority of seats. This outcome promised a Sejm no less
obstructionist than the one it replaced, and prospects for
a
coalition agreeing on a new prime minister were dim. At
least
five were needed to form a coalition holding a majority of
seats
in the Sejm. The Social Democracy of the Republic of
Poland was
essentially an ineligible party because of its roots in
the PZPR.
Meanwhile, the grave split of the two leading Solidarity
factions
made them incompatible in any coalition. This situation
left a
center-right coalition as the only practical option.
Walesa's
initial nominee for prime minister failed, however,
because he
lacked support from the Center Alliance and Bielecki's
party, the
Liberal-Democratic Congress.
Data as of October 1992
|
