CURRENT INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN - 1957/01/22

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Current/Central Intelligence Bulletin Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 03148913
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2019
• Publication Date: January 22, 1957

r20, -Approved
for Release: 2019/12/04
C0314?,
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CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
BULLETIN
22 January 1957
Copy No. 131
DOCUMENT NO.
NO CI :ANGE N CL,
I- I DECLAP5 iFIED
CLASS'. CHANGED TO:
NEXT REVIEW DATE:
AUTH FIR 70-
DATE.
REVIEWER
OFFICE OF CURRENT INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
3.3(h)(2)
3.5(c)
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�110 lug
CONTENTS
THE POLISH ELECTIONS
22 Jan 57
(page 3
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La 1
THE POLISH ELECTIONS
Comment on:
Faced with no practical alternative, the
Polish voters gave overwhelming support
on 20 January to Wladislaw Gomulka and
to the parliamentary candidates favored
by his regime. The mandate apparently
exceeded regime expectations, and will strengthen Gomulka's
hand in dealing with disruptive elements within his party.
Official results will not become known until
later in the week, but it appears that, with perhaps a few ex-
ceptions of little consequence, the composition of the Sejm
will be as planned by the regime with approximately 50 per-
cent of the seats going to Polish United Workers' (Commu-
nist) Party candidates, some 35 percent to the two collabo-
rating front parties, and the remainder to nonparty and Cath-
olic representatives. According to press reports, prelimi-
nary returns indicate that all of the party leaders who were
candidates were elected.
The high rate of participation, ranging
from 91 to 96 percent of eligible voters in areas reporting so
far, was encouraged by regime activists, who made personal
visits to those who had failed to register, and by the Catholic
Church. Support by the church was probably also decisive in
persuading a large majority of voters--reportedly between 60
and 70 percent--to heed a last-minute plea by Gomulka to vote
the straight ticket without deleting names of regime-favored
candidates. Although there are no reports of intimidation or
coercion, few of the electorate other than students took advan-
tage of the opportunity to cast their ballot secretly.
The elections were orderly and quiet.
No significant
unrest was reported, even in the Lublin area where antiregime /
agitation has been especially strong.
22 Jan 57
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