Word: sejm
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...said, he told Jaruzelski that Solidarity should be permitted to form its own government. The trade-union movement earned that right, the union leader declared, with its dramatic June 4 election victory, in which its candidates captured all 161 seats that were open to it in the 460-seat Sejm, or lower house, and 99 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Said he: "The only sensible decision would be to give power to those forces that have the support of the majority of the electorate...
...Polish voters earlier this month, they were firmly dispelled last week. By the end of the second round of sparsely attended balloting, the Solidarity trade-union movement had confirmed its victory by winning 99 seats in the 100-member Senate and all 161 opposition seats in the 460-seat Sejm, the lower house, where 299 places had been set aside in advance for the Communist alliance...
...official results announced at midweek showed a Solidarity landslide. Union-backed candidates won 92 of 100 seats in the newly created Senate and 160 of 161 Sejm (lower house) seats set aside for opposition and independent candidates. Although the remaining 299 Sejm seats were automatically allotted to the Communists and their allies, only five of their candidates garnered the required 50% of the vote. Most of those unfilled seats will be decided in runoff elections on June...
...second round. A majority of voters, eager to reject the whole Communist system, scratched all but two names off the ballot; 33 candidates were defeated and their seats thrown into limbo. That unexpected result triggered a constitutional crisis, since the electoral law requires a full 460-member Sejm but provides no mechanism for filling the vacant seats. Until these legal obstacles are resolved, the Parliament cannot fill the presidency, a powerful new post that was expected to go to party leader Wojciech Jaruzelski. Among the defeated national-list candidates were some of Jaruzelski's most reform- minded allies, including Prime...
...democracy in exchange for social cooperation on the economy; Solidarity would help secure that cooperation in return for its legalization and a share of power. The centerpiece of the agreement was the cumbersome electoral law that granted the Communists and their allies 65% of the seats in the Sejm and allotted 35% to the opposition; a new 100-member Senate, with veto power over all legislation, was to be chosen in open elections; a powerful presidency, with control over the armed forces and security apparatus, would be filled by the Communist-controlled Parliament. Solidarity allowed the party and its allies...