JOHN DANISZEWSKI
Associated Press

EDITOR’S NOTE: On June 4, 1989, Poland held its first partly free election in more than 40 years, and saw the Solidarity movement trounce the Communist Party at the ballot box. Associated Press correspondent John Daniszewski — now a senior managing editor at the news agency — chronicled the events that helped spark the collapse of communism across the former Soviet satellite states of Central and Eastern Europe, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union itself.

Twenty-five years after its publication on June 5, 1989, the AP is making this original report available.

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COMMUNIST PARTY DECLARES SOLIDARITY LANDSLIDE WINNER

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Solidarity won a landslide victory in Poland’s most democratic elections in more than 40 years, the ruling Communist Party conceded Monday. Dozens of senior officials apparently were turned out of Parliament.

The astounding admission of defeat, two days before the official results of Sunday’s voting were to be released, came in a statement at the start of the evening newscast by party spokesman Jan Bisztyga, who was shown sitting at the elbow of Solidarity national spokesman Janusz Onyszkiewicz.

A special slate of prominent government officials apparently was overwhelmingly rejected by voters.

“The results are genuinely unfavorable for the (party-led) coalition,” Bisztyga said. “The elections had a plebiscite nature and Solidarity got a decided majority.”

He reminded viewers that Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the country’s leader and head of the Communist Party, offered Friday to form a “grand coalition” after the election with the opposition.

“The first step of the opposition toward this is joint concern about order in the country,” said Bisztyga.

It appeared possible that at least some government ministries might be offered to Solidarity. The free trade union movement shunned such offers in the past, saying it prefers to remain in opposition.

However, Solidarity was not emphatically ruling it out Monday.

“Solidarity’s participation in a grand coalition would require more talks,” said senior union adviser Bronislaw Geremek.

He said no proposal had been forwarded so far.

Despite Solidarity’s win, the Communists still are expected to retain control of Parliament because election rules guarantee it a majority of seats.

But the union said Solidarity won almost all seats it was allowed to compete for, indicating the opposition may have veto power in the two-chamber legislature.

The Communist Party’s immediate concern seemed to be in maintaining public calm.

“If feelings of triumph and adventurism cause anarchy in Poland, democracy and social peace will be seriously threatened. Authorities, the coalition and the opposition cannot allow such a situation,” Bisztyga said.

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said earlier Monday in Gdansk, “It’s too early for congratulations and we don’t have complete information yet.”

But the official PAP news agency on Monday night confirmed overwhelming Solidarity victories in at least 11 cities.

Only a few Solidarity candidates to the new 100-seat Senate appeared unsure of first-round victory, Onyszkiewicz told an afternoon news conference, indicating firm opposition control of the East bloc’s first freely chosen legislative chamber.

Under the historic accords between the Solidarity-led opposition and the communist government, all 100 seats in the Senate were up for grabs in Sunday’s balloting.

The opposition also was allowed to run for 161 seats, or 35 percent, in the 460-seat Sejm, the lower chamber. The rest of the seats were reserved for the ruling Communists and their allies.

Thirty-five of those reserved seats are for prominent government and party officials who face no challengers.

But those uncontested party candidates must win 50 percent of the vote to be seated, and there were widespread reports voters were overwhelmingly rejecting those candidates.

If Solidarity wins all of its seats in both chambers, it would have 261 seats and the party would have 299. If all 35 unopposed candidates are rejected, the party would still have a 264-261 edge in the legislature.

However, under the newly revamped constitution, the Senate has veto power over all legislation passed by Parliament. The veto can only be overridden by a two-thirds vote in the Sejm.

If Solidarity’s projections match the final official returns, the Communist Party and its allies would be at least 10 votes short of being able to override a veto by an opposition-dominated Senate.

The 35-member “national list” of prominent candidates includes Prime Minister Mieczyslaw F. Rakowski, Interior Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak, No. 2 in the Politburo Jozef Czyrek and official unions leader Alfred Miodowicz.

All would retain their regular party posts if defeated in Parliament.

Solidarity leaders were hoping at least some on the list would survive.

If the 35 seats were vacant, the opposition would be in a stronger position when the Sejm and Senate meet jointly next month to elect a president.

Solidarity has not determined who, if anyone, it will support for the new office of president, which will have control of the armed forces and be able to call parliamentary elections. The party plans to nominate Jaruzelski.

Walesa on Saturday went on national television to announce that he was voting for 34 of the 35 people on the “national list.”

But many voters apparently saw it as a chance to express displeasure at the poor economy and the past behavior of the party.

About 16 million Poles cast ballots, a turnout of about 62 percent.

A runoff election is to be held June 18 in those contested races where no candidate obtained more than 50 percent of the votes, but it appeared that the runoffs would be mainly for seats in the Sejm reserved for the party and its allies.

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