1926 Polish presidential elections
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Two presidential elections were held in Poland in 1926. They followed the May Coup, which forced President StanisÅaw Wojciechowski and Prime Minister Wincenty Witos to resign and gave effective power to coup leader, Marshal Józef PiÅsudski.
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May election | |||||||||||||||||
31 May 1926
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June election | |||||||||||||||||
1 June 1926
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According to then Constitution President was elected by joint houses of Sejm and Senate (National Assembly).
31 May
There were two candidates: PiÅsudski and supported by the National Democracy, Christian Democracy and Piast Adolf BniÅski, Voivode of PoznaÅ. Several other politicians were mentioned to run, most notably ousted President Wojciechowski, Sejm Marshal and now Acting President Maciej Rataj (Polish People's Party "Piast") and Senate Marshal Wojciech TrÄ mpczyÅski (National Democracy), but they declined to run.
PiÅsudski was endorsed by left-wing groups and BiÅski was endorsed by National Democracy.
PiÅsudski defeated BiÅski in a single round:
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Józef PiÅsudski | 292 | 60.21 |
| Adolf BniÅski | 193 | 39.79 |
| Total | 485 | 100.00 |
However, following his election, PiÅsudski refused to accept the presidency.
1 June
Pro-PiÅsudskiite candidate selection
| Potential candidates | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ignacy MoÅcicki | Artur ÅliwiÅski | ZdzisÅaw Lubomirski | Marian Zdziechowski | |||||||
| Chemist | Prime Minister of Poland (1922) |
Mayor of Warsaw (1916-1917) |
Philosopher | |||||||
Following PiÅsudski's refusal to accept the mantle of the presidency, four candidates were considered to replace him: Artur ÅliwiÅski, ZdzisÅaw Lubomirski, Ignacy MoÅcicki and Marian Zdziechowski. ÅliwiÅski was a former Prime Minister, who failed to form a government with confidence of the Sejm, by 1926 he had become the director of the City Theater in Warsaw. Lubomirski and Zdziechowski, the most serious rivals to MoÅcicki, belonged to the "old conservative" movement. Lubomirski was a former Mayor of Warsaw and leader of the Regency Council in the Regency Kingdom of Poland, while Zdziechowski was a famous professor and political thinker. The possibility of their candidacies was eclipsed by MoÅcicki due to the initiative of incumbent Prime Minister Kazimierz Bartel. MoÅcicki was rather inexperienced in politics, as he was primarily a professional chemist. His political experience was limited to being a rank and file member in the illegal Polish socialist movement during the 19th century in the Russian partition, so he was assumed to be mostly a loyalist to PiÅsudski.[1]
Election
The Polish Socialist Party, who had previously supported PiÅsudski, filed their candidate - Sejm Caucus Chair Zygmunt Marek, a man who had officially nominated PiÅsudski a day earlier. BniÅski ran again.
| Candidate | First round | Second round | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |
| Ignacy MoÅcicki | 215 | 44.61 | 281 | 58.30 |
| Adolf BniÅski | 211 | 43.78 | 200 | 41.49 |
| Zygmunt Marek | 56 | 11.62 | 1 | 0.21 |
| Total | 482 | 100.00 | 482 | 100.00 |
MoÅcicki accepted his election.