1997 Polish parliamentary election explained

Country:

Poland

Type:

parliamentary

Previous Election:

1993 Polish parliamentary election

Previous Year:

1993

Next Election:

2001 Polish parliamentary election

Next Year:

2001

Election Date:

21 September 1997

Module:

Embed:

yes

Election Name:

Sejm

Type:

legislative

Seats For Election:

All 460 seats in the Sejm

Majority Seats:

231

Turnout:

47.93% (4.15pp)

Leader1:

Marian Krzaklewski

Party1:

Solidarity Electoral Action

Last Election1:

Did not exist

Seats1:

201

Seat Change1:

New

Popular Vote1:

4,427,373

Percentage1:

33.8%

Swing1:

New

Leader2:

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz

Party2:

Democratic Left Alliance (Poland)

Last Election2:

20.4%, 171 seats

Seats2:

164

Seat Change2:

Popular Vote2:

3,551,224

Percentage2:

27.1%

Swing2:

6.7pp

Leader3:

Leszek Balcerowicz

Party3:

Freedom Union (Poland)

Last Election3:

14.6%, 74 seats*

Seats3:

Seat Change3:

Popular Vote3:

1,749,518

Percentage3:

13.4%

Swing3:

1.2pp*

Leader4:

Waldemar Pawlak

Party4:

Polish People's Party

Last Election4:

1,5.4% 132 seats

Seats4:

Seat Change4:

105

Popular Vote4:

956,184

Percentage4:

7.3%

Swing4:

8.1pp

Leader5:

Jan Olszewski

Party5:

Movement for Reconstruction of Poland

Last Election5:

Did not exist

Seats5:

Seat Change5:

New

Popular Vote5:

727,072

Percentage5:

5.6%

Swing5:

New

Leader6:

Henryk Kroll

Party6:

German Minority

Last Election6:

0.7%, 4 seats

Seats6:

Seat Change6:

Popular Vote6:

51,027

Percentage6:

0.4%

Swing6:

0.3pp

Map Size:

420px

Module:

Embed:	yes
Election Name:	Senate
Seats For Election:	All 100 seats in the Senate
Majority Seats:	51
Turnout:	47.83% (4.27pp)
Noleader:	yes
Party1:	Solidarity Electoral Action
Last Election1:	new
Seats1:	51
Percentage1:	25.25
Party2:	Democratic Left Alliance (Poland)
Last Election2:	37
Seats2:	28
Percentage2:	23.48
Party3:	Freedom Union (Poland)
Last Election3:	4
Seats3:	8
Percentage3:	11.35
Party4:	Movement for Reconstruction of Poland
Last Election4:	new
Seats4:	5
Percentage4:	9.84
Party5:	Polish People's Party
Last Election5:	36
Seats5:	3
Percentage5:	7.01
Party6:	Independent (politician)
Last Election6:	10
Seats6:	5
Percentage6:	14.66
Government
Before Party:	SLD (SdRP)—PSL
Posttitle:	Government after election
After Election:	Buzek cabinet
After Party:	AWS—UW

Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 21 September 1997. All 460 members of the Sejm and 100 senators of the Senate were elected. The liberal conservative party Solidarity Electoral Action won the most seats in both chambers of parliament and formed a coalition government with the Freedom Union, another liberal party. The elections were a major setback for the Democratic Left Alliance and the Polish People's Party, which were forced out of government.

Opinion polls

See main article: Opinion polling for the 1997 Polish parliamentary election.

Results

Sejm

By constituency

Constituency	Turnout	AWS		SLD		UW		PSL		ROP		MN		UP	Others	Lead
		data-sort-type="number" colspan="2" style="height:1px; background:;"		data-sort-type="number" colspan="2" style="height:1px; background:;"		data-sort-type="number" colspan="2" style="height:1px; background:;"		data-sort-type="number" colspan="2" style="height:1px; background:;"		data-sort-type="number" colspan="2" style="height:1px; background:;"		data-sort-type="number" colspan="2" style="height:1px; background:;"		data-sort-type="number" style="height:1px; background:;"
		%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%
1 – Warsaw I	60.86	31.88	6	25.90	5	21.73	4	0.94	0	9.16	2	-	-	4.98	5.41	5.98
2 – Warsaw II	49.14	40.15	4	19.00	2	15.30	1	5.76	0	8.30	1	-	-	4.48	7.01	21.15
3 – Biała Podlaska	46.72	35.39	1	19.84	1	5.86	0	18.17	1	6.88	0	-	-	4.08	9.78	15.55
4 – Białystok	52.12	44.29	5	24.89	2	7.16	0	3.48	0	5.64	0	-	-	4.42	10.12	19.40
5 – Bielsko-Biała	56.15	43.01	5	21.06	2	15.59	2	4.83	0	4.80	0	-	-	3.82	6.89	21.95
6 – Bydgoszcz	48.16	27.62	4	36.99	5	11.50	1	6.42	1	4.46	0	-	-	4.36	8.65	9.37
7 – Chełm	39.26	23.89	1	28.66	2	7.91	0	12.83	0	8.96	0	-	-	4.58	13.17	4.77
8 – Ciechanów	38.40	28.73	1	29.69	2	6.86	0	14.49	1	6.55	0	-	-	5.67	8.01	0.96
9 – Częstochowa	45.01	30.60	3	31.36	4	9.84	1	6.48	0	4.82	0	-	-	5.37	11.53	0.76
10 – Elbląg	40.97	26.26	2	33.92	2	12.70	1	6.42	0	5.97	0	-	-	6.15	8.58	7.66
11 – Gdańsk	55.01	50.10	9	20.20	4	13.45	2	2.08	0	4.85	0	-	-	3.00	6.32	29.90
12 – Gorzów Wielkopolski	42.88	25.68	2	35.23	2	14.14	1	8.65	0	3.07	0	-	-	6.89	6.34	9.55
13 – Jelenia Góra	44.86	27.58	2	35.70	2	12.39	1	3.47	0	3.87	0	-	-	9.31	7.68	8.12
14 – Kalisz	48.76	26.12	2	32.56	3	11.62	1	12.26	1	4.48	0	-	-	6.44	6.52	6.44
15 – Sosnowiec	48.80	22.51	3	44.67	6	12.23	1	2.96	0	3.62	0	-	-	6.58	7.43	22.16
16 – Katowice	44.53	31.99	7	26.92	5	22.52	4	3.11	0	3.26	0	-	-	4.39	7.81	5.07
17 – Gliwice	45.63	34.77	6	23.10	4	17.30	3	2.65	0	5.04	1	-	-	4.41	11.73	10.67
18 – Kielce	41.79	24.61	4	31.81	5	10.41	1	14.72	2	5.31	0	-	-	5.95	7.19	7.20
19 – Konin	48.76	27.66	2	30.56	2	9.63	0	12.51	1	5.03	0	-	-	6.14	8.47	2.90
20 – Koszalin	41.70	22.22	1	36.11	3	14.22	1	4.35	0	4.33	0	-	-	4.92	13.85	13.89
21 – Kraków	53.48	40.76	7	17.64	3	20.60	3	4.23	0	4.84	0	-	-	3.13	8.80	20.16
22 – Krosno	52.79	47.20	4	15.58	1	7.60	0	7.03	0	10.02	0	-	-	3.69	8.88	31.62
23 – Legnica	44.35	32.49	2	34.88	3	10.75	0	4.80	0	3.93	0	-	-	5.47	7.68	2.39
24 – Leszno	47.98	25.77	2	33.89	2	12.67	0	11.47	0	2.84	0	-	-	5.19	8.17	8.12
25 – Lublin	47.06	35.41	4	23.19	3	9.14	1	11.64	1	8.82	1	-	-	5.31	6.49	12.22
26 – Łomża	46.41	47.13	3	13.96	1	5.47	0	11.43	0	11.02	0	-	-	4.26	6.73	33.17
27 – Łódź	50.11	28.84	4	37.07	5	14.83	2	1.80	0	6.44	0	-	-	4.28	6.74	8.23
28 – Nowy Sącz	56.57	56.03	5	10.51	1	9.91	1	7.17	0	3.48	0	-	-	2.23	10.67	45.52
29 – Olsztyn	42.49	25.86	3	33.40	4	15.16	1	5.68	0	5.61	0	-	-	5.74	8.55	7.54
30 – Opole	42.19	25.50	3	22.26	3	13.83	2	4.92	0	4.80	0	16.96	2	4.97	6.76	3.24
31 – Ostrołęka	42.23	35.45	2	18.04	1	8.23	0	15.97	1	9.23	0	-	-	4.05	9.03	17.41
32 – Piła	49.81	22.80	1	40.08	3	12.59	1	7.43	0	4.59	0	-	-	3.72	8.79	17.28
33 – Piotrków Trybunalski	42.59	28.99	3	26.84	2	9.21	1	14.11	1	7.73	0	-	-	4.57	8.55	2.15
34 – Płock	41.29	23.15	2	30.79	2	8.38	0	21.26	1	4.82	0	-	-	3.73	7.87	7.64
35 – Poznań	53.26	26.95	5	31.35	6	18.31	3	4.71	0	3.23	0	-	-	6.80	8.65	4.4
36 – Przemyśl	52.15	43.78	3	15.44	1	7.85	0	13.64	0	5.13	0	-	-	2.70	11.46	28.34
37 – Radom	43.56	32.50	3	22.05	2	10.09	1	14.35	1	8.41	1	-	-	4.18	8.42	10.45
38 – Rzeszów	59.81	57.81	6	13.58	1	6.10	0	9.14	1	5.48	0	-	-	2.56	5.33	44.23
39 – Siedlce	40.40	34.73	3	20.80	2	6.02	0	20.59	2	6.69	0	-	-	3.65	7.52	13.93
40 – Sieradz	42.35	24.96	1	29.36	2	8.81	0	16.74	1	5.79	0	-	-	6.84	7.50	4.4
41 – Skierniewice	41.78	25.49	2	24.51	1	9.65	0	19.58	1	6.60	0	-	-	3.80	10.37	0.98
42 – Słupsk	42.46	25.97	2	35.05	2	12.83	0	7.22	0	3.94	0	-	-	5.69	9.30	9.08
43 – Suwałki	40.80	33.34	3	27.04	2	10.57	0	8.99	0	5.38	0	-	-	6.05	8.63	6.30
44 – Szczecin	45.16	28.24	4	34.87	4	17.28	2	3.09	0	3.55	0	-	-	5.07	7.90	6.63
45 – Tarnobrzeg	46.44	39.29	3	23.73	2	7.11	0	11.60	1	8.00	0	-	-	2.80	7.47	15.56
46 – Tarnów	53.68	51.48	5	12.20	1	9.19	0	11.91	1	4.88	0	-	-	3.47	6.87	39.28
47 – Toruń	43.91	28.41	3	32.71	3	14.09	1	7.16	0	4.49	0	-	-	5.28	7.86	4.3
48 – Wałbrzych	45.31	27.69	3	38.36	4	11.65	1	3.86	0	3.98	0	-	-	6.68	7.78	10.67
49 – Włocławek	40.41	25.16	1	38.35	3	7.42	0	10.83	0	5.87	0	-	-	6.19	6.18	13.19
50 – Wrocław	60.86	33.02	5	25.96	4	20.65	3	4.04	0	5.08	0	-	-	4.57	6.68	7.06
51 – Zamość	46.05	33.43	2	18.95	1	5.26	0	24.58	2	8.45	0	-	-	3.35	5.98	8.85
52 – Zielona Góra	44.90	28.59	3	37.37	3	11.70	1	6.87	0	3.20	0	-	-	5.73	6.54	8.78
National list	-	-	29	-	23	-	11	-	6	-		-	-	-	-	-
Poland	47.93	33.83	201	27.13	164	13.37	60	7.31	27	5.56	6	0.39	2	4.74	7.67	6.70

Senate

By voivodeship

Voivodeship	Total seats	Seats won
		AWS	SLD	UW	ROP	PSL	Others

Biała Podlaska	2	2
Białystok	2	2
Bielsko	2	1		1
Bydgoszcz	2	1	1
Chełm	2	1				1
Ciechanów	2	1	1
Częstochowa	2	1	1
Elbląg	2	1	1
Gdańsk	2	1		1
Gorzów	2	1	1
Jelenia Góra	2	1	1
Kalisz	2	1	1
Katowice	3	1	1	1
Kielce	2	1	1
Konin	2	1	1
Koszalin	2	1	1
Kraków	2	1		1
Krosno	2	2
Legnica	2	1	1
Leszno	2	1	1
Lublin	2	1			1
Łomża	2	2
Łódź	2	1	1
Nowy Sącz	2	2
Olsztyn	2	1	1
Opole	2	1		1
Ostrołęka	2	1					1
Piła	2		1				1
Piotrków	2	1	1
Płock	2		1			1
Poznań	2			1		1
Przemyśl	2	2
Radom	2	1	1
Rzeszów	2	2
Siedlce	2	1			1
Sieradz	2	1	1
Skierniewice	2	2
Słupsk	2	1		1
Suwałki	2	1	1
Szczecin	2	1					1
Tarnobrzeg	2	2
Tarnów	2	1			1
Toruń	2	1	1
Wałbrzych	2		2
Warsaw	3	1		1	1
Włocławek	2		2
Wrocław	2						2
Zamość	2	1			1
Zielona Góra	2		2
Total	100	51	28	8	5	3	5
Source: National Electoral Commission

References

Obwieszczenie Państwowej Komisji Wyborczej z dn. 25 IX 1997 r., Monitor Polski. Nr 64, poz. 620
Obwieszczenie PKW z dn. 25 IX 1997 r., M.P. Nr 64, poz. 621