Politics of Poland

The history of Poland is complex, and its political history is complicated by the changes in the boundaries and the population of the country.

Since the end of communism many political parties developed. The Polish United Workers' Party which had ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989 ceased to exist in 1990.

The first election for president was held in 1990. Lech Wałęsa was elected. He beat Stanislaw Tyminski with 74% of the vote. Aleksander Kwasniewski, who had been in the Polish United Workers' Party was elected president in 1995 and 2000. He set up the Democratic Left Alliance.

In 1991 there were open elections for the Seym. 111 political parties contested the elections. 29 of them got enough votes to get seats, but it was not possible to form a stable government and new elections were held in 1991. The rules were changed so that only parties that got at least 5% of the votes got seats. About a third of the votes went to right wing parties, but there were so many of them that they didnt get many people elected. The left wing parties had combined and got 46% of the members.

In 1997 the conservative party Solidarity Electoral Action got 34% of the votes and 44% of the members.