Smoliński, Tadeusz2016-12-012016-12-011989Ruch Prawniczy, Ekonomiczny i Socjologiczny 51, 1989, z. 4, s. 23-37.0035-9629http://hdl.handle.net/10593/16013On April 7, 1988 implementing the Round Table Agreements, the Diet of the Polish People's Republic adopted electoral regulations on elections of the Diet of the Xt h term (1989-1993) and of the Senate. In Poland, elections of the Senate — the second chamber of the parliament — took place for the first time within the last fifty years. Regulations on elections of the Senate often refer to the appropriate provisions of the regulations on elections of the Diet. However, both acts contain many new solutions, of great importance for the democratization of the electoral system, and thus of direct influence on the shape and composition of the first two-chamber parliament in the People's Republic. It was for the first time in Poland since 1952 that electoral regulations made it possible for the opposition to run for the parliament. There is however, a basic difference between the methods of composing the two chambers of the parliament. While the political composition of the Diet, expressed in percentage, was agreed upon before the elections, the elections of the Senate were to be subject to free political play. In every system of elections the composition of the parliament is to a considerable extext conditioned upon the method of putting up candidates. In this respect, it was for the first time in the People's Republic that beside the candidates proposed by legal political parties and social organizations,, there appeared the candidates proposed by a so-called free electorate, i.e. by non-organized citizens domiciled in an electoral district. However, parties and social organizations were in a better situation. In particular, while parties and some catholic associations were free from the duty of confirming the candidatures with signatures of voters, and social and professional all-Polish organizations were allowed to collect their minimum of 3000 signatures to back up their candidate on the whole territory of Poland, free electorate had to collect the minimum of 3000 signatures within their electoral district. It was also for the first time in the Polish People's Republic that citizens elected their representatives from among the unlimited number of candidates. Both electoral regulations were passed within a very short period. Besides, the Round Table Agreements had to be taken into consideration. All this accounts for the fact that the regulations are far from being perfect from the legal point of view. Moreover, in some places they are in obvious contradiction with the Constitution of 1952, adopted in the time of entirely different political, social and economic conditions.polinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessArtykuł