Anatomia klęski – obóz władzy w kampanii wyborczej w 1989 roku

Anatomy of a defeat: The authorities’ camp in the 1989 electoral campaign As a result of changes in both the internal and external situation of the People’s Republic of Poland in the second half of the 1980s, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski’s administration felt obliged to negotiate with the opposition. For the authorities, the key point of the negotiations was the electoral contract on the basis of which they Solidarity leaders agreed to participate in the still not fully democratic parliamentary election planned for June 1989. The present analysis of the authorities’ preparations for the election shows how many mistakes they made at the central and lower levels. At this early stage, the key element of those preparations which contributed to the scale of the defeat of the coalition-government camp was the method of nominating candidate for the upper and lower house of parliament. The fact that the Political Bureau renounced the initiative to nominate candidates for both houses of parliament led to uncontrollable fragmentation and the nomination of candidates by a wide range of coalitions. Interestingly, it is clear that the authorities ignored the results of all opinion polls, which indicated that they were unlikely to win many mandates. Why they persisted in believing they could win is difficult to explain, but the conviction that the society would soon tire of the opposition’s campaign and vote for the ruling camp was certainly one of the reasons. One of the party’s basic problems at the time was its inability to convince its members to play an active role in the campaign. Inducing its political allies cooperate created even greater difficulties. As a result, the coalition was unable to form a uniform front for the purpose of conducting the electoral campaign. The next challenge the PUWP had to face during the campaign were the efforts of allied parties to gain greater autonomy and emphasize their distinctive character.