1990 Polish local elections
Lech Wałęsa, the President of Poland, did not directly comment on the local elections, but his appeals such as "take the matter into your own hands" were interpreted as encouragements.In February 1990, Wałęsa called for a swift organization of local elections, with the support of Prime Minister Mazowiecki.However, the political environment of Wałęsa, Solidarność, was also wary of the influence of citizen committee movements that spearheaded local government reforms.The MPs of the PZPR such as Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz criticized the pace of the reforms, their extent, and also resignation from having a unitary, centralized governance.However, the Polish Social Democratic Union accepted the reform and praised it as a correct way to introduce democracy on the local level.Meanwhile, the Confederation of Independent Poland and Centre Agreement considered the election important in order to purge local structures of communist officials.The Confederation of Independent Poland formed many local coalitions, mainly with newly established parties with a Christian Democratic and agrarian-nationalist profile.In its pre-election campaign, the Alliance of Democrats tried, with mediocre success, to refer to the tradition of the 3rd of May Constitution, often invoking such notions as homeland, property, dignity, freedom, family, nation.[9] Summing up the campaigning before the first local elections, Andrzej Piasecki notes the poverty of resources, lack of professionalism and little media involvement.‘Those who went to the polls felt more like citizens, the owners of their towns and villages, those who were able to stand together against the atomising pressure of the old system,’ summarised Gazeta Wyborcza.In several voivodeship cities, the citizen committees won over 70% (or even over 85%) of the seats in the councils, as was the case in Bielsko-Biała, Częstochowa, Krosno, Łódź, Płock, Przemyśl, Rzeszów, Skierniewice, Szczecin, Wałbrzych, Wrocław and Zielona Góra.In cities with a population of less than 40,000 and in municipalities, support for Solidarity was lower and at the same time (due to the lack of electoral lists) more difficult to estimate.[5] The general perception was that the 1990 elections, with a turnout of 42.3 per cent of eligible voters, were won by the Solidarity Civic Committees, winning around 55% of the vote and gaining 41,4% of all mandates.Additionally, until the end of 1990, local councils had to act within the old financial system, with limited autonomy and heavy budget deficit.This led to fiscal emphasis starting in late 1990, where local authorities followed the unpopular austerity policies pursued by the central government, including increasing selected fees and charges.Later investigation identified two main issues that contributed to the decreased turnout - firstly, voting places were opened until 20:00, which constituted a difficulty for those living outside their permanent residence; secondly, there was no option to vote in municipal units other than one's permanent residence, which meant that students, internal migrants, army conscripts, hospitalized citizens or those on holidays were "deprived of their active electoral right".