1997 Polish parliamentary election

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21 September 1997

2001 →

All 460 seats in the Sejm
231 seats were needed for a majority in the Sejm
All 100 seats in the Senate

Turnout

47.9%

	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Marian Krzaklewski	Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz	Leszek Balcerowicz
Party	AWS	SLD	UW
Leader since	8 June 1996	Candidate for PM	April 1995
Leader's seat	Gliwice	Białystok	Katowice
Last election	Did not exist	171 seats, 20.4%	74 seats, 14.6%*
Seats won	201	164	60
Seat change	201	7	14
Popular vote	4,427,373	3,551,224	1,749,518
Percentage	33.8%	27.1%	13.4%
Swing	33.8%	6.7%	1.2%*

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Waldemar Pawlak	Jan Olszewski	Henryk Kroll
Party	PSL	ROP	KWMN
Leader since	29 June 1991	18 November 1995	1991
Leader's seat	Płock	Warsaw	Opole
Last election	132 seats, 15.4%	Did not exist	4 seats, 0.7%
Seats won	27	6	2
Seat change	105	6	2
Popular vote	956,184	727,072	51,027
Percentage	7.3%	5.6%	0.4%
Swing	8.1%	5.6%	0.3%

Seats won by Sejm District

Prime Minister before election

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz
SLD

New Prime Minister

Jerzy Buzek
AWS

Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 21 September 1997.^[1] In the Sejm elections, 47.93% of citizens cast their votes, 96.12% of which were counted as valid. In the Senate elections, 46.92% of citizens cast their votes, 97.82% of which were valid.

The elections were won by the liberal conservative party Solidarity Electoral Action only to lead to a coalition forming with the Freedom Union, another liberal party. The elections were a major setback for the Democratic Left Alliance and the Polish People's Party, which were forced out of government.

Opinion polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the 1997 Polish parliamentary election

Results

Sejm



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Solidarity Electoral Action	4,427,373	33.83	201	New
	Democratic Left Alliance	3,551,224	27.13	164	–7
	Freedom Union	1,749,518	13.37	60	–14
	Polish People's Party	956,184	7.31	27	–105
	Movement for Reconstruction of Poland	727,072	5.56	6	New
	Labour Union	620,611	4.74	0	–41
	National Party of Retirees and Pensioners	284,826	2.18	0	New
	Real Politics Union	266,317	2.03	0	0
	National Alliance of Retirees and Pensioners	212,826	1.63	0	New
	National Christian Bloc for Poland	178,395	1.36	0	New
	German Minority Electoral Committee	51,027	0.39	2	–2
	Germans of Katowice Province	16,724	0.13	0	–
	Słowiańska MN RP-Prawosławni	13,632	0.10	0	–
	Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland	10,073	0.08	0	0
	Polska Wspólnota Narodowa	8,590	0.07	0	–
	Germans of the Częstochowa Province	6,206	0.05	0	–
	MN "Pojednanie i Przyszlość"	3,663	0.03	0	–
	MN Województwa Olsztyńskiego	1,729	0.01	0	–
	Niezależna i bezpartyjna	924	0.01	0	–
	Sojusz Ludzi "Polska Praca Sprawiedliwość"	703	0.01	0	–
	Stow. MN Województwa Elbląskiego	614	0.00	0	–
Total		13,088,231	100.00	460	0

Valid votes		13,088,231	96.12
Invalid/blank votes		528,147	3.88
Total votes		13,616,378	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		28,409,054	47.93
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

By constituency

Constituency	Turnout	AWS		SLD		UW		PSL		ROP		MN		UP	Others	Lead

		%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%
1 – Warsaw I	60.86	31.88	6	25.90	5	21.73	4	0.94	0	9.16	2	-	-	4.98	5.41	5.98
2 – Warsaw II	49.14	40.15	4	19.00	2	15.30	1	5.76	0	8.30	1	-	-	4.48	7.01	21.15
3 – Biała Podlaska	46.72	35.39	1	19.84	1	5.86	0	18.17	1	6.88	0	-	-	4.08	9.78	15.55
4 – Białystok	52.12	44.29	5	24.89	2	7.16	0	3.48	0	5.64	0	-	-	4.42	10.12	19.40
5 – Bielsko-Biała	56.15	43.01	5	21.06	2	15.59	2	4.83	0	4.80	0	-	-	3.82	6.89	21.95
6 – Bydgoszcz	48.16	27.62	4	36.99	5	11.50	1	6.42	1	4.46	0	-	-	4.36	8.65	9.37
7 – Chełm	39.26	23.89	1	28.66	2	7.91	0	12.83	0	8.96	0	-	-	4.58	13.17	4.77
8 – Ciechanów	38.40	28.73	1	29.69	2	6.86	0	14.49	1	6.55	0	-	-	5.67	8.01	0.96
9 – Częstochowa	45.01	30.60	3	31.36	4	9.84	1	6.48	0	4.82	0	-	-	5.37	11.53	0.76
10 – Elbląg	40.97	26.26	2	33.92	2	12.70	1	6.42	0	5.97	0	-	-	6.15	8.58	7.66
11 – Gdańsk	55.01	50.10	9	20.20	4	13.45	2	2.08	0	4.85	0	-	-	3.00	6.32	29.90
12 – Gorzów Wielkopolski	42.88	25.68	2	35.23	2	14.14	1	8.65	0	3.07	0	-	-	6.89	6.34	9.55
13 – Jelenia Góra	44.86	27.58	2	35.70	2	12.39	1	3.47	0	3.87	0	-	-	9.31	7.68	8.12
14 – Kalisz	48.76	26.12	2	32.56	3	11.62	1	12.26	1	4.48	0	-	-	6.44	6.52	6.44
15 – Sosnowiec	48.80	22.51	3	44.67	6	12.23	1	2.96	0	3.62	0	-	-	6.58	7.43	22.16
16 – Katowice	44.53	31.99	7	26.92	5	22.52	4	3.11	0	3.26	0	-	-	4.39	7.81	5.07
17 – Gliwice	45.63	34.77	6	23.10	4	17.30	3	2.65	0	5.04	1	-	-	4.41	11.73	10.67
18 – Kielce	41.79	24.61	4	31.81	5	10.41	1	14.72	2	5.31	0	-	-	5.95	7.19	7.20
19 – Konin	48.76	27.66	2	30.56	2	9.63	0	12.51	1	5.03	0	-	-	6.14	8.47	2.90
20 – Koszalin	41.70	22.22	1	36.11	3	14.22	1	4.35	0	4.33	0	-	-	4.92	13.85	13.89
21 – Kraków	53.48	40.76	7	17.64	3	20.60	3	4.23	0	4.84	0	-	-	3.13	8.80	20.16
22 – Krosno	52.79	47.20	4	15.58	1	7.60	0	7.03	0	10.02	0	-	-	3.69	8.88	31.62
23 – Legnica	44.35	32.49	2	34.88	3	10.75	0	4.80	0	3.93	0	-	-	5.47	7.68	2.39
24 – Leszno	47.98	25.77	2	33.89	2	12.67	0	11.47	0	2.84	0	-	-	5.19	8.17	8.12
25 – Lublin	47.06	35.41	4	23.19	3	9.14	1	11.64	1	8.82	1	-	-	5.31	6.49	12.22
26 – Łomża	46.41	47.13	3	13.96	1	5.47	0	11.43	0	11.02	0	-	-	4.26	6.73	33.17
27 – Łódź	50.11	28.84	4	37.07	5	14.83	2	1.80	0	6.44	0	-	-	4.28	6.74	8.23
28 – Nowy Sącz	56.57	56.03	5	10.51	1	9.91	1	7.17	0	3.48	0	-	-	2.23	10.67	45.52
29 – Olsztyn	42.49	25.86	3	33.40	4	15.16	1	5.68	0	5.61	0	-	-	5.74	8.55	7.54
30 – Opole	42.19	25.50	3	22.26	3	13.83	2	4.92	0	4.80	0	16.96	2	4.97	6.76	3.24
31 – Ostrołęka	42.23	35.45	2	18.04	1	8.23	0	15.97	1	9.23	0	-	-	4.05	9.03	17.41
32 – Piła	49.81	22.80	1	40.08	3	12.59	1	7.43	0	4.59	0	-	-	3.72	8.79	17.28
33 – Piotrków Trybunalski	42.59	28.99	3	26.84	2	9.21	1	14.11	1	7.73	0	-	-	4.57	8.55	2.15
34 – Płock	41.29	23.15	2	30.79	2	8.38	0	21.26	1	4.82	0	-	-	3.73	7.87	7.64
35 – Poznań	53.26	26.95	5	31.35	6	18.31	3	4.71	0	3.23	0	-	-	6.80	8.65	4.4
36 – Przemyśl	52.15	43.78	3	15.44	1	7.85	0	13.64	0	5.13	0	-	-	2.70	11.46	28.34
37 – Radom	43.56	32.50	3	22.05	2	10.09	1	14.35	1	8.41	1	-	-	4.18	8.42	10.45
38 – Rzeszów	59.81	57.81	6	13.58	1	6.10	0	9.14	1	5.48	0	-	-	2.56	5.33	44.23
39 – Siedlce	40.40	34.73	3	20.80	2	6.02	0	20.59	2	6.69	0	-	-	3.65	7.52	13.93
40 – Sieradz	42.35	24.96	1	29.36	2	8.81	0	16.74	1	5.79	0	-	-	6.84	7.50	4.4
41 – Skierniewice	41.78	25.49	2	24.51	1	9.65	0	19.58	1	6.60	0	-	-	3.80	10.37	0.98
42 – Słupsk	42.46	25.97	2	35.05	2	12.83	0	7.22	0	3.94	0	-	-	5.69	9.30	9.08
43 – Suwałki	40.80	33.34	3	27.04	2	10.57	0	8.99	0	5.38	0	-	-	6.05	8.63	6.30
44 – Szczecin	45.16	28.24	4	34.87	4	17.28	2	3.09	0	3.55	0	-	-	5.07	7.90	6.63
45 – Tarnobrzeg	46.44	39.29	3	23.73	2	7.11	0	11.60	1	8.00	0	-	-	2.80	7.47	15.56
46 – Tarnów	53.68	51.48	5	12.20	1	9.19	0	11.91	1	4.88	0	-	-	3.47	6.87	39.28
47 – Toruń	43.91	28.41	3	32.71	3	14.09	1	7.16	0	4.49	0	-	-	5.28	7.86	4.3
48 – Wałbrzych	45.31	27.69	3	38.36	4	11.65	1	3.86	0	3.98	0	-	-	6.68	7.78	10.67
49 – Włocławek	40.41	25.16	1	38.35	3	7.42	0	10.83	0	5.87	0	-	-	6.19	6.18	13.19
50 – Wrocław	60.86	33.02	5	25.96	4	20.65	3	4.04	0	5.08	0	-	-	4.57	6.68	7.06
51 – Zamość	46.05	33.43	2	18.95	1	5.26	0	24.58	2	8.45	0	-	-	3.35	5.98	8.85
52 – Zielona Góra	44.90	28.59	3	37.37	3	11.70	1	6.87	0	3.20	0	-	-	5.73	6.54	8.78
National list	-	-	29	-	23	-	11	-	6	-		-	-	-	-	-
Poland	47.93	33.83	201	27.13	164	13.37	60	7.31	27	5.56	6	0.39	2	4.74	7.67	6.70

Results of the Sejm election, showing vote strength by electoral district.
Results of the Sejm election, showing vote strength by powiats (in 1999 borders).

Senate



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Solidarity Electoral Action	6,550,176	25.25	51	New
	Democratic Left Alliance	6,091,721	23.48	28	–9
	Freedom Union	2,943,527	11.35	8	+4
	Polish People's Party	1,819,176	7.01	3	–33
	Movement for Reconstruction of Poland	2,553,252	9.84	5	New
	Labour Union	520,130	2.00	0	0
	National Party of Retirees and Pensioners	1,112,129	4.29	0	New
	Real Politics Union	550,254	2.12	0	0
	Local lists	3,804,084	14.66	5	–5
Total		25,944,449	100.00	100	0

Valid votes		13,317,952	98.02
Invalid/blank votes		269,149	1.98
Total votes		13,587,101	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		28,409,054	47.83
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

By voivodeship

Voivodeship	Total seats	Seats won
		AWS	SLD	UW	ROP	PSL	Others

Biała Podlaska	2	2
Białystok	2	2
Bielsko	2	1		1
Bydgoszcz	2	1	1
Chełm	2	1				1
Ciechanów	2	1	1
Częstochowa	2	1	1
Elbląg	2	1	1
Gdańsk	2	1		1
Gorzów	2	1	1
Jelenia Góra	2	1	1
Kalisz	2	1	1
Katowice	3	1	1	1
Kielce	2	1	1
Konin	2	1	1
Koszalin	2	1	1
Kraków	2	1		1
Krosno	2	2
Legnica	2	1	1
Leszno	2	1	1
Lublin	2	1			1
Łomża	2	2
Łódź	2	1	1
Nowy Sącz	2	2
Olsztyn	2	1	1
Opole	2	1		1
Ostrołęka	2	1					1
Piła	2		1				1
Piotrków	2	1	1
Płock	2		1			1
Poznań	2			1		1
Przemyśl	2	2
Radom	2	1	1
Rzeszów	2	2
Siedlce	2	1			1
Sieradz	2	1	1
Skierniewice	2	2
Słupsk	2	1		1
Suwałki	2	1	1
Szczecin	2	1					1
Tarnobrzeg	2	2
Tarnów	2	1			1
Toruń	2	1	1
Wałbrzych	2		2
Warsaw	3	1		1	1
Włocławek	2		2
Wrocław	2						2
Zamość	2	1			1
Zielona Góra	2		2
Total	100	51	28	8	5	3	5
Source: National Electoral Commission

References

^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

Obwieszczenie Państwowej Komisji Wyborczej z dn. 25 IX 1997 r., Monitor Polski. Nr 64, poz. 620
Obwieszczenie PKW z dn. 25 IX 1997 r., M.P. Nr 64, poz. 621

v t e Elections and referendums in Poland
Presidential elections	1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025
Parliamentary elections	1919 1922 1928 1930 1935 1938 1947 1952 1957 1961 1965 1969 1972 1976 1980 1985 1989 1991 1993 1997 2001 2005 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 Next
Local elections	1916–17 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1929 1933–34 1936 1938–39 1954 1958 1961 1965 1969 1973 1976 1980 1984 1988 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2024
European elections	2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Referendums	1946 1987 1996 1997 2003 2015 2023
See also: Elections in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

v t e History of the Third Polish Republic
1990–1995 Wałęsa Presidency	Round Table Agreement 1990 presidential election 1991 parliamentary election 1993 parliamentary election
1995–2005 Kwaśniewski Presidency	1995 presidential election 1996 enfranchisement and privatisation referendums 1997 Constitution 1997 parliamentary election 2000 presidential election 2001 parliamentary election Rywin affair 2003 invasion of Iraq EU membership referendum Accession to the EU
2005–2010 Kaczyński Presidency	2005 parliamentary election 2005 presidential election 2007 parliamentary election Smolensk air disaster
2010–2015 Komorowski Presidency	2010 presidential election 2011 parliamentary election Euro 2012 2015 presidential election
2015-present Duda Presidency	2015 parliamentary election 2015 referendum 2015 constitutional crisis 2019 parliamentary election COVID-19 pandemic in Poland 2020 presidential election 2021 border crisis