Poland's new men of property. (Letter from Europe)

Nation, The, November, 1991 by Singer, Daniel

On Sunday, October 27--the future as I write this--the Poles will elect their two houses of Parliament, for the first time in an entirely free vote. For the 460 seats in the Sejm they will choose from among 7,021 candidates on twenty-seven national party lists and a number of regional ones in a complicated system of proportional representation.

For the 100 senators they will pick among 613 contenders. It is not a triumph of democracy? Nobody in Warsaw seems to think so. Poland is catching up with America in this unwelcome respect: Half the electorate is expected not to go to the ...