Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 27 October 1991 to elect deputies to the First Term Sejm and the Senate, the two houses of the National Assembly.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p. 1491 The 1991 election was notable on several counts. It was the first parliamentary election to be held since the formation of the Third Republic, the first entirely free and competitive legislative election since the fall of communism, the first completely free legislative election of any sort since 1928. Due to the collapse of the Solidarity political wing, the Solidarity Citizens' Committee, the 1991 election saw deep political fragmentation, with a multitude of new parties and alliances emerging in its wake. Low voting thresholds within individual constituencies, along with a five percent national threshold allocated to a small portion of the Sejm, additionally contributed to party fragmentation. As a result, 29 political parties gained entry into the Sejm and 22 in the Senate, with no party holding a decisive majority. Two months of intense coalition negotiations followed, with Jan Olszewski of the Centre Agreement forming a minority government along with the Christian National Union, remnants of the broader Centre Civic Alliance, and the Peasants' Agreement, with conditional support from Polish People's Party, Solidarity list and other minor parties.
460 members of parliament () were elected; 391 from 6980 candidates from 37 regional lists of candidates and 69 from country-wide lists of candidates. In the Sejm elections, 27,517,280 citizens were eligible to vote, 11,887,949 (43.2%) of them cast their votes and 11,218,602 (94.4%) of the votes were counted as valid. In the Senate elections, 43.2% of citizens cast their votes, 96.5% were valid.
Elections were supervised by the National Electoral Commission (). 37 regional () commissions were formed, and 22,341 district (), staffed by 197,389 citizens.
A total of 111 parties contested the elections, of which 29 won parliamentary seats. The success of the satirical Polish Beer-Lovers' Party with 16 seats gained news coverage worldwide.
Opinion polls
Results Sejm
By constituency No.ConstituencyTotalseatsSeats wonUDSLDWAKPSLKPNPOCKLDPLKO "S"PPPPKWMNOthers1Warsaw I17321133132Warsaw II811111213Płock101112111114Łódź122221111115Piotrków Trybunalski711111116Konin9111211117Radom811211118Kielce111212111119Częstochowa81111111110Opole101111111311Wroclaw1232111111112Wałbrzych81111111113Jelenia Góra1122111111114Zielona Góra1112121111115Kalisz7111111116Toruń1112111111217Bydgoszcz1112111111218Poznań14221111111319Gorzów Wielkopolski1012111111120Szczecin1021111111121Koszalin9111111322Gdańsk15212111312123Olsztyn13221211111124Ostrołęka121132112125Białystok1212211111226Siedlce10111211327Zamość7111111128Lublin1011112111129Rzeszów1311221121230Przemyśl91112111131Tarnów711111232Nowy Sącz7111111133Kraków133111211334Bielsko-Biała911111111135Sosnowiec101212111136Katowice17221112211437Gliwice132111111113National list691110778765431Total46062604948464437282716736Source: National Electoral Commission
Senate
By voivodeship VoivodeshipTotal seatsSeats wonUDKO "S"POCWAKPSLKLDPLSLDKPNPChDOthersBiała Podlaska211Białystok211Bielsko211Bydgoszcz211Chełm211Ciechanów211Częstochowa211Elbląg211Gdańsk211Gorzów211Jelenia Góra211Kalisz22Katowice3111Kielce211Konin211Koszalin211Kraków211Krosno211Legnica211Leszno211Lublin211Łomża22Łódź211Nowy Sącz211Olsztyn211Opole211Ostrołęka211Piła22Piotrków211Płock211Poznań211Przemyśl211Radom211Rzeszów211Siedlce22Sieradz211Skierniewice211Słupsk211Suwałki211Szczecin211Tarnobrzeg211Tarnów211Toruń211Wałbrzych22Warsaw321Włocławek22Wrocław211Zamość211Zielona Góra211 Total 10021119986744318Source: National Electoral Commission
Notes
References
Obwieszczenie Państwowej Komisji Wyborczej z dn. 31 X 1991 r., Monitor Polski. Nr 41, poz. 288 Obwieszczenie PKW z dn. 30 X 1991 r., M.P. Nr 41, poz. 287