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1922 Polish parliamentary election

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All 444 seats in the Sejm
Turnout	67.9%
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Stanisław Głąbiński Wojciech Korfanty Edward Dubanowicz Stanisław Grabski Yitzhak Gruenbaum Wincenty Witos Party ChZJN BMN PSL "Piast" Leader since November 1920 1922 1 December 1918 Last election 140 – 46 Seats won 163 66 70 Seat change 23 New 24 Popular vote 2,551,582 1,398,250 1,153,397 Percentage 29.1% 16.0% 13.2%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Stanisław Thugutt Ignacy Daszyński Jan Stanisław Jankowski Party PSL "Wyzwolenie" PPS NPR Leader since 1921 1921 1920 Last election 59 35 32 Seats won 49 41 18 Seat change 10 6 14 Popular vote 963,385 906,537 473,676 Percentage 11.0% 10.3% 5.4%
Winning party by electoral districts
Prime Minister before election Julian Nowak Party of the National Right Elected Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski Independent

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Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 5 November 1922, with Senate elections held a week later on 12 November. The elections were governed by the March Constitution of Poland, and saw the Christian Union of National Unity coalition emerge as the largest bloc in the Sejm with 163 of the 444 seats.

The resulting coalitions were unstable, and the situation - difficult from the start, with assassination of Polish president Gabriel Narutowicz in December shortly after the elections - culminated in 1926 with the May Coup.

Results

Sejm

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Christian Union of National Unity	2,528,256	28.81	163	+23
	Bloc of National Minorities	1,397,538	15.93	66	New
	Polish People's Party "Piast"	1,132,962	12.91	70	+24
	Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie"	959,022	10.93	49	–10
	Polish Socialist Party	894,103	10.19	41	+6
	National Workers' Party	472,737	5.39	18	–14
	Polish Centre	255,170	2.91	6	–
	Union of Jewish National Parties in Lesser Poland	168,593	1.92	15	+7
	Radical Peasant Party	127,006	1.45	4	New
	Communist Party of Poland	121,571	1.39	2	–
	Jewish National Union	86,782	0.99	2	–
	Rural Ukrainian Club (Chliborobi)	81,039	0.92	5	–
	General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland	80,735	0.92	0	–
	Polish People's Party "Left"	60,338	0.69	2	–10
	Folkspartei	50,587	0.58	1	–
	Państwowe Zjednoczenie na Kresach	48,442	0.55	0	–
	People's Council	46,555	0.53	0	–
	National-State Union [pl]	38,159	0.43	0	–
	Urban Centre	30,470	0.35	0	–
	Jewish Labor Committee	15,242	0.17	0	–
	Invalids and Demobilised Soldiers	11,833	0.13	0	–
	Party of Independent Socialists	6,353	0.07	0	–
	Communist Party of Upper Silesia [pl]	5,393	0.06	0	–
	Poale Zion	3,347	0.04	0	–
	Others	152,455	1.74	0	–
Total		8,774,688	100.00	444	+50
Valid votes		8,774,688	99.35
Invalid/blank votes		57,807	0.65
Total votes		8,832,495	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		13,009,887	67.89
Source: Sejm i Senat 1922-1927 p486–487, p477

Senate

Ethnoreligious voting analysis

According to Kopstein and Wittenberg, 39% of the majority Catholic population voted for right-wing parties, 29% for non-revolutionary left-wing parties and 25% for centrist parties. The other ethnoreligious groups, including Uniates, Jews and Orthodox Christians voted largely for parties representing minority groups.

Some regional differences were observed; in western Poland, 9% of the Catholic vote went to minority interest parties, which has been attributed in part to German Catholic voting, but in the east, only 1% did. Ethnic Polish support for the right wing was stronger in the east of the country, where 40% voted for right-wing parties, as opposed to the south where 16% did. No detectable regional variation existed among Jews. The lack of support for the center and right among the major minorities (Jews, Ukrainians and Belarusians) was attributed to ethnic polarisation that was exacerbated by discrimination and chauvinism from Polish officials. Despite the success of minority parties, parties describing themselves as "Polish" refused to form a government with minority parties, and there was not one non-ethnic Polish cabinet member in the interwar period, though interethnic cooperation could still be seen in Ukrainian and Belarusian support for the Sikorski government.

References

1. Polska 1918–2018. Warsaw. 2018. p. 29.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
2. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
3. Kopstein, Jeffrey S.; Wittenberg, Jason (2003). "Who Voted Communist? Reconsidering the Social Bases of Radicalism in Interwar Poland" (PDF). Slavic Review. 62 (1): 87–109. doi:10.2307/3090468. ISSN 0037-6779. JSTOR 3090468. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-04-13.
4. ^ Kopstein & Wittenberg, p99
5. Kopstein & Wittenberg, p98

Further reading

• A. J. Groth, Polish Elections 1919-1928, Slavic Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Dec., 1965), pp. 653–665 JSTOR

v t e Elections and referendums in Poland
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Local elections	1916–17 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1929 1933–34 1936 1938–39 1954 1958 1961 1965 1969 1973 1976 1980 1984 1988 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2024
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Referendums	1946 1987 1996 1997 2003 2015 2023
Silesian Sejm elections	1922 1930 (May) 1930 (Nov) 1935
See also: Elections in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

• Parliamentary elections in Poland
• November 1922 events in Europe
• 1922 elections in Poland