Polish legislative election, 1952

Polish legislative election, 1952

October 26, 1952 (1952-10-26)
All 425 seats in the Sejm
Turnout	95.00%
First party   Leader Bolesław Bierut Party FJN - PZPR Leader since December 22, 1948 Leader's seat Warsaw-Prague Seats won 388 (PZPR - 273, ZSL - 90, SD - 25), 91.2%
Premier before election Józef Cyrankiewicz PZPR Premier Józef Cyrankiewicz PZPR

Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 26 October 1952. They were the first elections to the Sejm, the parliament of the People's Republic of Poland. They were also the first under undisguised Communist rule; the government had dropped all pretense of being a coalition after the fraudulent 1947 election. The official rules for the elections were outlined in the new Constitution of the People's Republic of Poland and lesser acts.

Background

This election would set the tone for all subsequent elections held during the 42 years of undisguised Communist rule in Poland. As would be the case with all elections held during this time, the election was blatantly rigged, and the results heavily falsified. Along with the 1947 election, the 1952 election is considered among the least free of elections held in Communist Poland. This was very common during the era of Stalinization. Under Bolesław Bierut, who had become the de facto leader of Poland in 1948, the Communist government, like its kindred regimes in the rest of the Soviet bloc, tried to tighten its control over society as much as possible. All opposition parties had been either eliminated or driven underground by this time, and the regime's opponents were subject to arrest and torture. Voters were presented with a single list from the Front of National Unity, comprising the communist Polish United Workers Party and its two satellite parties, the Democratic Party and the United People's Party. The number of candidates permitted to run in the elections was equal to the number of seats in parliament.

There were 425 seats. The number of seats would be increased in the subsequent elections.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
Front of National Unity	Polish United Workers' Party	15,459,849	99.8	273
	United People's Party			90
	Democratic Party			25
	Independents			37
Blank ballots		31,321	0.2	–
Invalid votes		4,645	–	–
Total		15,495,815	100	425
Registered voters/turnout		16,305,891	95.0	–
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

The official results showed that 99.8% of the voters approved the FJN list. Candidates from the FJN parties took 91.2% of the Sejm, with 8.7% falling to the nominal "independents." Within the FJN, the PZPR won an absolute majority with 273 seats (64.2% total), its best result both in total number of seats and percentage of the Sejm controlled. However, as the other parties and "independents" were completely subservient to the PZPR, communist control of the Sejm was, in fact, total. In later years, the communist-dominated list would be credited with between 98 and 99% of the vote, a trend which would continue until 1989.

The term of the Sejm elected in 1951 was due to finish in 1956, but due to political shifts in Poland, the next elections took place in early 1957 in a more liberal atmosphere, although still not free.

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,