Wybory „kontraktowe” w Polsce w czerwcu 1989 roku: peccatum originale u podstaw narodzin III Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej
“Contract” Election in Poland in June 1989: Peccatum Originale on the Threshold of the Third Republic of Poland

Summary/Abstract: The article addresses the last elections that took place in the Polish People’s Republic in June 1989,the so called contract elections. They was held as a result of an agreement concluded at the RoundTable between ruling communists and their allies and the part of the anti communist opposition. Theelection was not free and democratic. The contract, which was concluded, specified the way ofholding elections and percentage distribution of seats for the participants of the agreement. Establishing the outcome of election even before casting the vote was the constant practice of thecommunist state. In 1989 an additional peculiarity, unknown even during the Stalinist period, was tochange the electoral law during the election, when, after the fi rst round, it did not guarantee theexpected result. Contracting parties assumed that, for political reasons, they could manipulate thelaw. That “original sin” lies at the root of the Third Republic of Poland.

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