Two indirect presidential elections were held in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

in December 1922. In the first election on 9 December

Gabriel Narutowicz Gabriel Józef Narutowicz (; 29 March 1865 – 16 December 1922) was a Polish people, Polish professor of hydroelectric engineering and politician who served as the first president of Poland from 11 December 1922 until Assassination of Gabriel Na ...

was elected president, but he was assassinated five days later. A second election on 22 December was won by

Stanisław Wojciechowski Stanisław Wojciechowski (; 15 March 1869 – 9 April 1953) was a Polish people, Polish politician and scholar who served as President of Poland between 1922 and 1926, during the Second Polish Republic. He was elected president in 1922, followi ...

First election

After the independence of

, the head of state was

Naczelnik Państwa The Chief of State (; ) was the title of the head of state of Poland in the early years of the Second Polish Republic. This office was held only by Józef Piłsudski, from 1918 to 1922. Until 1919, the title was called the Provisional Chief of St ...

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Chief of State (Poland), Chief of State (1918–1922) and first Marshal of Poland (from 1920). In the aftermath of World War I, he beca ...

. In a new constitution adopted by the Polish

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

, the new

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

was to be the President of Republic of Poland - to be choose by the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

(combined Sejm and

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

). After the

parliamentary election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

, planning began for the first Polish presidential election in history. The main probable candidate

, despite calls for him to contend, did not run for election. He proposed a former Prime Minister,

Wincenty Witos Wincenty Witos (; 21 or 22 January 1874 – 31 October 1945) was a Polish statesman, prominent member and leader of the Polish People's Party (PSL), who served three times as the Prime Minister of Poland in the 1920s. He was a member of the Pol ...

, for presidency. Witos also refused. Finally Piłsudski supported the candidature of

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

. At the time of the election the main candidates were count Maurycy Zamoyski, the candidate of

National Democracy National Democracy may refer to: * National democratic state, a state formation conceived by the Soviet concept of national democracy * National Democracy (Czech Republic) * National Democracy (Italy) * National Democracy (Philippines) * National De ...

and

, candidate of Polish People's Party "Piast". Narutowicz's good result was a surprise. Once the long voting was over, Zamoyski and Narutowicz advanced to the fifth ballot. Narutowicz finally won the election with the support of "Piast" (Wojciechowski was eliminated on the fourth round). Narutowicz was sworn in as president on 11 December 1922, but was assassinated five days later.

Candidates

File:Gabriel narutowicz.jpg,

File:Maurycy Zamoyski.jpg, Diplomat Maurycy Zamoyski File:Stanisław Wojciechowski.jpg, Former

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

File:Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay.jpg, Linguist

Jan Baudouin de Courtenay Jan Niecisław Ignacy Baudouin de Courtenay, also Ivan Alexandrovich Baudouin de Courtenay (; 13 March 1845 – 3 November 1929), was a Polish linguist and Slavic studies, Slavist, best known for his theory of the phoneme and allophone, phoneti ...

File:Ignacy Daszynski01.jpg, Former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Ignacy Daszyński Ignacy Ewaryst Daszyński (; 26 October 1866 – 31 October 1936) was a Polish socialist politician, journalist, and very briefly Prime Minister of the Second Polish Republic's first government, formed in Lublin in 1918. In October 1892 he cofo ...

Results

Second election

The first election, when

President of the Republic of Poland The president of Poland ( ), officially the president of the Republic of Poland (), is the head of state of Poland. His or her prerogatives and duties are determined in the Constitution of Poland. The president jointly exercises the executiv ...

was elected after several rounds by joint chambers of

and

(at time of

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

joint parliament elected president. The first direct vote took place in 1990). Narutowicz, however, was assassinated just five days since taking office. According to the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

the

Sejm Marshal The Marshal of the Sejm (, ) is the speaker (chair) of the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament. The office traces its origins to the 15th century. In modern Poland, the full title is Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (). ...

Maciej Rataj Maciej Rataj (19 February 1884 – 21 June 1940) was a Polish politician, speaker of the Polish Parliament and deputy President of the Republic of Poland, and writer. Biography Born in the village of Lviv Raion, Chłopy, near Lwów (now Lviv, ...

became

Acting President of the Republic of Poland Acting is an activity in which a story is told by means of its Enactment (psychology), enactment by an actor who adopts a Character (arts), character—in theatre, television, film, radio, or any other medium that makes use of the Mimesis, mi ...

and organised new elections, which took place on 20 December. Stanislaw Wojciechowski won the second election, and took office on 22 December.

Candidates

* Kazimierz Morawski (put on ballot by

; supporter by allied right-wing parties), philologist and academician from

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

(put on ballot by

Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie" Polish Peasant Party "Wyzwolenie" or Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie" (Polish: ''Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe "Wyzwolenie"'', abbreviated as PSL Wyzwolenie) — ''Wyzwolenie'' is Polish for ''Liberation'', and many sources translate the pa ...

; supported also by

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party (, PPS) is a democratic socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most significant parties in Poland from its founding in 1892 until its forced merger with the communist Polish Workers' Party to form ...

, agrarians and minorities), former Minister of Interior and one of the leading candidates in previous election

Results

References

Bibliography

*Sławomir Koper, ''Józef Piłsudski. Człowiek i polityk'', Warsaw 2011 *''Dodatek nadzwyczajny'', "Kurjer Poznański", 9 December 1922, Poznań. {{Polish presidential elections

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Presidential elections in Poland

First election

Candidates

Results

Second election

Candidates

Results

See also

References

Bibliography