Presidential election in Poland 1926 (May 31)

The third presidential election in Poland took place on May 31, 1926 in Warsaw . The National Assembly has Józef Pilsudski to Poland President of the Republic elected, but not the latter took the choice to.

background

During the May coup on May 12-15 , 1926, Marschall a. D. Józef Piłsudski the newly elected government of the right-center coalition under Wincenty Witos . Likewise, on May 15, the President of the Republic of Poland, Stanisław Wojciechowski , resigned from his post in order to avoid further hostility and a civil war. The Sejm Marshal Maciej Rataj took over the official duties of the head of state for the second time in accordance with the “March constitution” . At first it was expected that Marshal Piłsudski would also dissolve parliament and order early elections . However, since no clear instructions from Piłsudski came after the coup, Rataj called for a new presidential election on Monday, May 31, 1926.

The vote

Candidates

• 

  Adolf Bniński

• 

  Józef Piłsudski

The following candidates were proposed for election in the National Assembly:

• Adolf Bninski - border grater seater, economist, Voivod of Posen (since 1923), a monarchist
• Józef Piłsudski - Marshal of the Army, co-founder of the Polish Socialist Party , former Head of State (1919–1922) and Commander in Chief (1919–1923)

The vote

Under the chairmanship of Sejm Marshal Maciej Rataj , the secret ballot took place at the fourth session of the National Assembly.

Warsaw, May 31, 1926

Ballot	candidate	Number of votes	%	Supporting parties
1st ballot	Adolf Bniński	193	40%	nationalist parties
	Józef Piłsudski	292	60%	left and centrist parties
	Invalid votes	61
So Józef Piłsudski was elected.

Letter from Piłsudski to the National Assembly not accepting the election

After the election

Marshal Piłsudski did not accept the election. The rejection of the election was received with astonishment, both among his opponents and among his supporters. With his election and the rejection of dignity, Piłsudski pursued two goals. First, he legitimized his coup because democratic procedures were formally adhered to. Second, he submitted to the National Assembly, demonstrating his greatest disgust for Parliament.

Since there was still no head of state, Rataj postponed the National Assembly to the following day so that another election of the president could take place.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Ustawa z dnia 17 marca 1921 r. - Konstytucja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. In: Dziennik Ustaw, sejm.gov.pl. March 17, 1921, accessed December 9, 2012 .  
2. ↑ Marshal Piłsudski also used to denigrate to the press the constitution as prostitutes (Polish prostytuta ) and privately the members of parliament as whores (Polish kurwy ).

literature

• Daria Nałęcz, Tomasz Nałęcz : Józef Piłsudski, premier Rzeczypospolitej 2 X 1926–27 VI 1928, 25 VIII – 4 XII 1930 . In: Andrzej Chojnowski, Piotr Wróbel (Ed.): Prezydenci i premierzy Drugiej Rzeczypospolitej . Zakład Narodowy imienia Ossolińskich, Wydawnictwo, Breslau, Warsaw, Krakow 1992, ISBN 83-04-03854-4 , p. 245-260 .