4 czerwca świętujemy 24. rocznicę pierwszych wolnych wyborów i upadku komunizmu w Polsce
'Do niepodległości krok po kroku’ – ostatni wywiad prof. Krzysztofa Skubiszewskiego (z okazji 20-lecia obchodów) /The last press interview prof. K. Skubiszewski Minister FA of Poland 1989-1993
The June 4, 1989 elections were the first partly free elections in Poland after the end of World War II.
In the wake of the elections, the communists lost their decades-long monopoly on power that began in the late 1940s. Commenting on the elections, popular actress Joanna Szczepkowska announced on television, „Today, communism has ended in Poland.” While some of her contemporaries called her prediction premature, years later it turned out that Szczepkowska had been right.
On June 4, 1989, voters went to the polls to elect members of the lower and upper houses of the Polish parliament, the Sejm and the Senate. The elections were not fully democratic. Under the election law at the time, the opposition could win no more than 35 percent of the seats in the lower house. The remaining 65 percent, or 299 seats, was reserved for the ruling Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) and its two satellite parties as well as three religious and social organizations controlled by the communists.
The distribution of these 299 seats in the 460-member lower house was decided in advance: 173 seats were reserved for the PZPR, 76 for the United Peasants’ Party (ZSL), 27 for the Democratic Party (SD), 10 for the PAX Association, eight for the Christian-Social Union (UChS), and five for the Polish Catholic and Social Association (PZKS). The remaining 161 seats were to be filled in a free election.
In contrast, the election to the Senate, the newly established 100-member upper house, was fully free.
The result of the June 4 elections came as a shock to the communists-the opposition won by a landslide, gaining 160 of the 161 seats they could win in the lower house and 92 seats in the 100-member Senate. The turnout was 62 percent. more
Photo’s from an exhibition commemorating the 20th anniversary of free elections, held in June 2009 in Gdansk
fot. M. Bos-Karczewska – Polonia.nl
Opublikowane na portalu Polonia.NL 04.06.2013
– Wydawca portalu: STEP – Stowarzyszenie Ekspertów Polskich w Holandii. Czytaj o nas
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