1985 Polish parliamentary election

none Poland legislative 1980 Polish parliamentary election 1980 1989 Polish parliamentary election 1989 All 460 seats in the Sejm 231 yes 1985 10 13 130x130px Wojciech Jaruzelski, 1982.jpeg 100 98 130 5 0 center Wojciech Jaruzelski Polish United Workers' Party PRON 261 245 16 Roman Malinowski.jpg 130 98 130 0 20 center Roman Malinowski United People's Party (Poland) PRON 113 106 7 Tadeusz Witold Młyńczak.jpg 110 98 130 0 1 center Tadeusz Witold Młyńczak Democratic Party (Poland) PRON 37 35 2 Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 13 October 1985.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 978-3-8329-5609-7 According to the Constitution of 1952 the elections should have been held every 4 years, that is in the spring of 1984, but since the internal political situation was still considered "unstable" even after the repealing in 1983 of the Martial Law, the Sejm voted to extend its own term at first indefinitely (on February 13, 1984) and then until August 31, 1985 (on December 3, 1984), fixing the elections to be held not beyond the end of 1985. As was the case in previous elections, only candidates approved by the Communist regime (coalesced under the Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth, replacing the similar Front of National Unity) were permitted on the ballot. The outcome was thus not in doubt, nevertheless the regime was hoping for a high turnout, which it could then claim as evidence of strong support for the government among the population. The opposition from the Solidarity movement called for a boycott of the elections. According to official figures 78.9% of the electorate turned out to vote.Nohlen & Stöver, p1503 This turnout, while relatively high, was much lower than the nearly 100% turnout which was reported in previous elections. It was the last election in Communist Poland in which no real opposition candidates were allowed to participate. The following election in 1989, in which opposition parties could put up candidates for a portion of the seats, resulted in a convincing opposition victory followed by the downfall of the Communist system. TV Solidarity incident Broadcast signal intrusion In 1985, four college students at University of Toruń used a computer to hijack the signal of multiple state-owned television stations. They placed propagandist messages on the screen in an attempt to get the viewer to boycott the elections.2006-05-18 Telewizja "Solidarność" Toruń 1985 http://w.icm.edu.pl/tvS/tvs.htm dead https://web.archive.org/web/20091206064447/http://w.icm.edu.pl/tvS/tvs.htm 2009-12-06 2009-07-15 w.icm.edu.pl pl Enough price increases, lies, and repressions. Solidarity Toruń. It is our duty to boycott the election. "Telewizja Solidarność" (TV Solidarity) Results The results, like with the other elections in communist Poland, were controlled by the communist government. The results of the 1985 election were duplicating, exactly, the results of the 1965 to 1972 elections, which were only marginally different from those of the preceding years. File:Poland Sejm 1985 no borders.svg Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth 4 Polish United Workers' Party 20489086 4 245 –16 #E3401B United People's Party 106 –7 Democratic Party 35 –2 Independents 74 +25 y 20489086 65096 0 26065497 Nohlen & Stöver As the other parties and "independents" were subordinate to PZPR, its control of the Sejm was total.Andrzej Paczkowski Jane Cave The spring will be ours: Poland and the Poles from occupation to freedom https://books.google.com/books?id=WoKQWem2yl4C&pg=PA229 3 June 2011 2003 Penn State Press 978-0-271-02308-3 229Norman Davies God's Playground: 1795 to the present https://archive.org/details/godsplaygroundhi00norm_0 registration 3 June 2011 May 2005 Columbia University Press 978-0-231-12819-3 459 Post-elections Shortly after the elections, Jaruzelski resigned as prime minister and defence minister and became the Chairman of the Polish Council of State — a post equivalent to that of head of state of Poland. However, his power centered on and firmly entrenched in his coterie of "LWP" generals and lower ranks officers of the Polish People's Army.CIA’s Historical Review 24 October 1997 Cold War era analysis https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/historical-collection-publications/the-warsaw-pact/warsaw-pact.pdf dead PDF file, direct download 12.2 MB Soviet – East European Military Relations in Historical Perspective Sources and Reassessments The Historical Collections Division (HCD) of the Office of Information Management Services 1 1 18 of 44 https://web.archive.org/web/20131124212240/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/historical-collection-publications/the-warsaw-pact/warsaw-pact.pdf 24 November 2013 26 May 2014 References Category:Parliamentary elections in Poland Poland Parliamentary Poland Category:Elections in the Polish People's Republic Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results