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1
Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 16 April 1961. They were the third elections to the Sejm, the parliament of the People's Republic of Poland, and fourth in Communist Poland.
Background
The 1961 elections followed the liberalized rules prepared for those in 1957, but compared to the situation five years ago, the Polish society was much more apathetic and disappointed with the government. The elections, as all the others under the communist regimes in Poland, were not free and the results of the 1961 elections are considered to be falsified, again a common occurrence of that time.
The electoral system was very similar to that in East Germany where ostensibly multiple parties were present, but their involvement was tempered by mandatory membership of a "unity list" which was ever loyal to the communist hegemony. In practice, electors only had the choice to approve or disapprove the lists, rather than genuinely get to pick their preferred candidate. There were independents; however, they would get elected only if the majority of voters in a multi-member electorate voted against the official list. Additionally, those who were allowed to register and run as independents had to go through an approval process, which invariably rejected any who were too oppositional. Although there was no blatant falsification like ballot stuffing or overt intimidation of voters who turned out, historiographers of Polish history invariably consider these elections to have been fraudulent - due to the above peculiarities.
Results
The official results were a turnout of 95%, while the communist parties' list prepared by Front of National Unity received 98% of the vote. 460 members were elected, 256 from Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), 117 from United People's Party (ZSL), 39 from the Democratic Party (SD), 48 independents (the majority of whom were "Social independents", as well as several "Catholic independents" from the Znak association). However, as the other parties and "independents" were subordinate to PZPR, its control of the Sejm was total.
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party or alliance | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |||
| Front of National Unity | Polish United Workers' Party | 17,342,570 | 98.34 | 256 | 17 | ||
| United People's Party | 117 | –1 | |||||
| Democratic Party | 39 | 0 | |||||
| Independents | 48 | –15 | |||||
| Blank ballots | 292,009 | 1.66 | – | – | |||
| Total | 17,634,579 | 100.00 | 460 | +1 | |||
| Valid votes | 17,634,579 | 99.89 | |||||
| Invalid votes | 19,067 | 0.11 | |||||
| Total votes | 17,653,646 | 100.00 | |||||
| Registered voters/turnout | 18,615,185 | 94.83 | |||||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver | |||||||
References
- Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
- ^ Norman Davies (May 2005). God's Playground: 1795 to the present. Columbia University Press. p. 459. ISBN 978-0-231-12819-3. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
- Andrzej Paczkowski; Jane Cave (2003). The spring will be ours: Poland and the Poles from occupation to freedom. Penn State Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-271-02308-3. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
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, JSTOR
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