The electoral campaign and elections to the Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland in 1957: state of research, current determinations and research perspectives

The electoral campaign and elections for the Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland of the 2nd term of office had an extraordinary character as compared to all the elections in the People's Republic of Poland. As part of the so-called thaw the authorities democratised the electoral regulations enabling the possibility to register more candidates on the electoral lists than the number of seats that were to be filled. Although each district, as before, had regis-tered only one electoral list, this gave the impulse for a competition between the candidates over a smaller number of mandates. This competition turned unpredictable, which resulted in a call for the PZPR's authorities, led by Wladyslaw Gomulka, to vote "without crossing", namely to vote for persons included on the electoral list on the so-called mandate places and not to choose freely. Thanks to the popularity of Gomulka in the period of "the October changes" such a practice was successfully imposed on the electors. The elections became nothing short of a popularity contest in which the 1st secretary of the Central Committee was selected. On the other hand, the voting "with no crossing" remained an inseparable element of the electoral practice of the People's Republic of Poland for nearly the next 30 years. In this article, the available literature on the electoral campaign and elections to the Sejm of the People's Republic of Poland of the 2nd term of office has been reviewed. The further part presents the most important issues related to the elections of January 1957: a reform in electoral law, the preparation of elections and filling the electoral lists, the course of the electoral campaign ( taking into account the role of the army and the Security Service), as well as the voting and its results. The previous determinations have been presented in a synthetic form and supplemented by some additional determinations