1961 Polish parliamentary election

none Polish People's Republic parliamentary 1957 Polish parliamentary election 1957 1965 Polish parliamentary election 1965 All 460 seats in the Sejm 16 April 1961 Wladyslaw Gomulka.jpg Władysław Gomułka Polish United Workers' Party Front of National Unity 460 1 Premier New Premier Józef Cyrankiewicz Polish United Workers' Party Józef Cyrankiewicz Polish United Workers' Party Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 16 April 1961.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 978-3-8329-5609-7 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).Norman 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 However, 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 978-0-271-02308-3 229 File:Poland Sejm 1961.svg Front of National Unity 4 Polish United Workers' Party 17342570 4 256 +17 United People's Party 117 –1 Democratic Party 39 0 Independents 48 –15 Blank ballots 292009 y 19067 +1 18615185 Nohlen & Stöver See also Sejm of the Polish People's Republic Polish United Workers' Party United People's Party (Poland) Alliance of Democrats (Poland) History of Poland (1945–1989) People's Republic of Poland References 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 Poland Category:Parliamentary elections in Poland Category:Elections in the Polish People's Republic Poland Parliamentary