Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 5 November 1922, with Senate elections held a week later on 12 November.[2] The elections were governed by the March Constitution of Poland, and saw the Christian Union of National Unity coalition emerge as the largest bloc in the Sejm with 163 of the 444 seats.
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All 444 seats in the Sejm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 67.9%[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Winning party by electoral districts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The resulting coalitions were unstable, and the situation - difficult from the start, with assassination of Polish president Gabriel Narutowicz in December shortly after the elections - culminated in 1926 with the May Coup.
Results
editSejm
edit | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| Christian Union of National Unity | 2,528,256 | 28.81 | 163 | +23 | |
| Bloc of National Minorities | 1,397,538 | 15.93 | 66 | New | |
| Polish People's Party "Piast" | 1,132,962 | 12.91 | 70 | +24 | |
| Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie" | 959,022 | 10.93 | 49 | –10 | |
| Polish Socialist Party | 894,103 | 10.19 | 41 | +6 | |
| National Workers' Party | 472,737 | 5.39 | 18 | –14 | |
| Polish Centre | 255,170 | 2.91 | 6 | – | |
| Union of Jewish National Parties in Lesser Poland | 168,593 | 1.92 | 15 | +7 | |
| Radical Peasant Party | 127,006 | 1.45 | 4 | New | |
| Communist Party of Poland | 121,571 | 1.39 | 2 | – | |
| Jewish National Union | 86,782 | 0.99 | 2 | – | |
| Rural Ukrainian Club (Chliborobi) | 81,039 | 0.92 | 5 | – | |
| General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland | 80,735 | 0.92 | 0 | – | |
| Polish People's Party "Left" | 60,338 | 0.69 | 2 | –10 | |
| Folkspartei | 50,587 | 0.58 | 1 | – | |
| Państwowe Zjednoczenie na Kresach | 48,442 | 0.55 | 0 | – | |
| People's Council | 46,555 | 0.53 | 0 | – | |
| National-State Union | 38,159 | 0.43 | 0 | – | |
| Urban Centre | 30,470 | 0.35 | 0 | – | |
| Jewish Labor Committee | 15,242 | 0.17 | 0 | – | |
| Invalids and Demobilised Soldiers | 11,833 | 0.13 | 0 | – | |
| Party of Independent Socialists | 6,353 | 0.07 | 0 | – | |
| Communist Party of Upper Silesia | 5,393 | 0.06 | 0 | – | |
| Poale Zion | 3,347 | 0.04 | 0 | – | |
| Others | 152,455 | 1.74 | 0 | – | |
| Total | 8,774,688 | 100.00 | 444 | +50 | |
| Valid votes | 8,774,688 | 99.35 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 57,807 | 0.65 | |||
| Total votes | 8,832,495 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 13,009,887 | 67.89 | |||
| Source: Sejm i Senat 1922-1927 p486–487, p477 | |||||
Senate
edit| Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christian Union of National Unity | 2,173,756 | 38.70 | 48 | |
| Bloc of National Minorities | 977,075 | 17.40 | 23 | |
| Polish People's Party "Piast" | 729,622 | 12.99 | 17 | |
| Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie" | 529,675 | 9.43 | 8 | |
| Polish Socialist Party | 468,147 | 8.34 | 7 | |
| National Workers' Party | 291,779 | 5.20 | 3 | |
| Jewish Group | 179,626 | 3.20 | 4 | |
| Radical Peasant Party | 56,339 | 1.00 | 0 | |
| Państwowe Zjednoczenie na Kresach | 55,953 | 1.00 | 1 | |
| Polish Centre | 55,805 | 0.99 | 0 | |
| Communist Party of Poland | 51,094 | 0.91 | 0 | |
| Polish People's Party "Left" | 25,362 | 0.45 | 0 | |
| Union of People's Councils | 10,096 | 0.18 | 0 | |
| Urban Centre | 3,111 | 0.06 | 0 | |
| National-State Union | 2,338 | 0.04 | 0 | |
| Others | 6,713 | 0.12 | 0 | |
| Total | 5,616,491 | 100.00 | 111 | |
| Valid votes | 5,616,491 | 99.35 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 36,838 | 0.65 | ||
| Total votes | 5,653,329 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 9,085,690 | 62.22 | ||
| Source: Nohlen & Stöver | ||||
Ethnoreligious voting analysis
editAccording to Kopstein and Wittenberg, 39% of the majority Catholic population voted for right-wing parties, 29% for non-revolutionary left-wing parties and 25% for centrist parties. The other ethnoreligious groups, including Uniates, Jews and Orthodox Christians voted largely for parties representing minority groups.[3]
Some regional differences were observed; in western Poland, 9% of the Catholic vote went to minority interest parties, which has been attributed in part to German Catholic voting, but in the east, only 1% did. Ethnic Polish support for the right wing was stronger in the east of the country, where 40% voted for right-wing parties, as opposed to the south where 16% did. No detectable regional variation existed among Jews.[4] The lack of support for the center and right among the major minorities (Jews, Ukrainians and Belarusians) was attributed to ethnic polarisation that was exacerbated by discrimination and chauvinism from Polish officials.[5] Despite the success of minority parties, parties describing themselves as "Polish" refused to form a government with minority parties, and there was not one non-ethnic Polish cabinet member in the interwar period, though interethnic cooperation could still be seen in Ukrainian and Belarusian support for the Sikorski government.[4]
| Estimates of voting patterns by ethnoreligious groups | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Religion | Communists | Nonrevolutionary left | Minority interest parties | Center | Right-wing | Overall share (1921 census) |
| Catholic | 2% | 29% | 4% | 25% | 39% | 64% |
| Uniate | 3% | 2% | 77% | 1% | 5% | 12% |
| Orthodox Christian | 8% | 37% | 66% | 1% | 1% | 10% |
| Jewish | 4% | 18% | 65% | 2% | 4% | 11% |
| Overall share (1921 census) | 2% | 16% | 24% | 25% | 34% | |
References
edit- ^ Polska 1918–2018. Warsaw. 2018. p. 29.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
- ^ Kopstein, Jeffrey S.; Wittenberg, Jason (2003). "Who Voted Communist? Reconsidering the Social Bases of Radicalism in Interwar Poland" (PDF). Slavic Review. 62 (1): 87–109. doi:10.2307/3090468. ISSN 0037-6779. JSTOR 3090468. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-04-13.
- ^ a b Kopstein & Wittenberg, p99
- ^ Kopstein & Wittenberg, p98
Further reading
edit- A. J. Groth, Polish Elections 1919-1928, Slavic Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Dec., 1965), pp. 653–665 JSTOR