Topics of coins
30th Anniversary of the First Free Parliamentary Election
Poland was the last Central European
country to hold a free parliamentary election
after the fall of communist governments.
This was due to the evolutionary nature of
the changes in the political system initiated by
the Round Table talks and then to the policy
pursued by the government headed by
Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who decided to hold
democratic local government elections in
the first place (May 1990). And later, the elite
of the “Solidarity” movement, embroiled in an
increasingly fierce political dispute, decided to
call a general presidential election. Its winner,
Lech Wałęsa, engaged in a months-long dispute
with the majority of the Contract Sejm over
the structure of the electoral law. It all led to
the free parliamentary election taking place as
late as 27 October 1991.
Voter turnout at the election was only 43.2%,
which was due to the discontent among many
Polish citizens with the direction of the political
and economic changes launched in 1989. Since
the proportional representation electoral system
did not provide for an electoral threshold,
the seats in the Sejm were divided amongst
representatives of as many as 24 parties.
Most of the seats (barely 62) were gained by
the Democratic Union (Unia Demokratyczna).
The degree of political fragmentation at
the election is also well illustrated by the fact that 14 parties won fewer than 10 seats, with 7 of
the parties gaining just 1 seat each.
The leader of the Christian National Union
(Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe) Prof.
Wiesław Chrzanowski was elected Speaker
of the Sejm. In December 1991, the Sejm of
the first term appointed a government headed
by Jan Olszewski. After its fall – accelerated by
the lustration crisis (4 June 1992) and followed
by Waldemar Pawlak’s unsuccessful mission to form
a cabinet – the government of Hanna Suchocka was
formed in July 1992. The vote of no confidence in
the latter, taken in May 1993, prompted President
Wałęsa to dissolve the parliament and call an
early election. The most significant achievement
of the Sejm of the first term was the adoption of the so-called Small Constitution, which was
ratified on 17 October 1992.
The obverse of the coin carries a portrait of
Jan Olszewski, Prime Minister in the years
1991–1992, a fragment of the seating chart
for the Sejm meeting hall, and a stylised
ballot box.
The reverse features a fragment of the complex
of the Sejm buildings, with a centrally placed
building that houses the Sejm meeting
halls, and a fragment of the Senate building.
In the foreground, a stylised fragment
of a ballot paper featuring the eagle of
the National Electoral Commission is placed.
Antoni Dudek