Contract Sejm

Contract Sejm (Polish: Sejm kontraktowy) is a termcommonly applied to the "Sejm" (parliament) elected inthe Polish parliamentary elections of 1989. The contractrefers to an agreement reached by the Communist Partyand the Solidarity (Solidarno in Polish) movement dur-ing the Polish Round Table Agreement. The nal agree-ment was signed on April 5, 1989. As a result, real politi-cal power was vested in a newly created bicameral legisla-ture and in a president who would be the chief executive.Solidarno became a legitimate and legal political party.Perhaps the most important decision reached during thetalks was to allow for partially free elections to be held inPoland. All seats to the newly created Senate of Polandwere to be elected democratically, as were 161 seats (35percent of the total) in Sejm. The remaining 65% ofthe seats were reserved for the Communist Party and itssatellite parties. In addition, all 35 seats elected via thecountry-wide list were reserved for the Partys candidatesprovided they gained a certain quota of support. This wasto ensure that the most notable leaders of the Party wereelected.The outcome of the election was largely unpredictable.After all, Poland had not had a truly fair election since the1920s, so there was little precedent to go by. It was clearthat the Communists were unpopular, but there were nohard numbers as to how low support for them would ac-tually fall. The Communist government still had controlover most major media outlets and employed sports andtelevision celebrities for candidates, as well as successfullocal personalities and businesspeople. Some membersof the opposition were worried that such tactics wouldgain enough votes from the less educated segment of thepopulation to give the Communists the legitimacy thatthey craved.The election of June 4, 1989 (and the second round ofJune 18) brought a landslide victory to Solidarno: 99%of all the seats in the Senate and all of the possible seatsin the Sejm. Out of 100 seats in the Senate, 99 were wonby Solidarity and 1 by an independent candidate. Out of35 seats of the country-wide list, only one was gained bythe Party candidate (Adam Zieliski) and one by a UnitedPeoples Party satellite party candidate, while the remain-der were taken by the Solidarity in the second run. Alto-gether, out of 161 seats eligible, Solidarity took 160.The turnout was surprisingly low: only 62.7% in the rstround and 25% in the second. The outcome was a ma-jor surprise to both the Party and Solidarity. Only a fewdays before June 4 the party Central Committee was dis-

cussing the possible reaction of the Western world shouldSolidarity not win a single seat. At the same time the Sol-idarity leaders were trying to prepare some set of rulesfor the non-party MPs in a Communist-dominated par-liament, as it was expected that the Solidarity would winnot more than 20 seats.Although the elections were not entirely democratic, theypaved the way for creation of Tadeusz Mazowiecki'scabinet and a peaceful transition to democracy, whichwas conrmed after the Polish parliamentary elections of1991.The Contract Sejms opening session took place on 5 July1989 [1]

1 References[1] Solidarity Takes Its Elected Place In The Parliament -

NewYork Times. Nytimes.com. 1989-07-05. Retrieved2011-11-12.

Mikoaj Kozakiewicz (1991). Byem marszakiemkontraktowego. Warsaw, BGW. p. 255. ISBN 83-7066-180-7.

Marek Chmaj (1996). Sejm Kontraktowy w trans-formacji systemu politycznego Rzeczypospolitej Pol-skiej. Lublin, Maria Curie-Skodowska UniversityPress. p. 214. ISBN 83-227-0906-4.

Janusz Sodczyk, ed. (2001). The course and eectsof the transformation process in Poland in dierentelds of social and economic life. Opole, Opole Uni-versity. p. 272. ISN 1642-2597.

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