Results of nation-wide elections for the new Sejm (chamber of deputies) were awaited tonight after a strong election campaign. Jewish candidates ran in Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow and Lwow. The polls closed at nine p.m.
Victory for the Governmental Camp of National Unity being conceded in advance, interest in the elections centered on the effectiveness of the boycott ordered by the three large opposition parties, National Democratic, United People’s, and Socialist. In 1935, when a similar boycott was carried out in protest against the electoral system, only 37 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise. Supporters of the Government hoped that a better response would be obtained this year as a result of a propaganda campaign presenting the boycott as a crime against the State. Most of the candidates have no political past, and are little known to the voters.
Half the population, or 17,413,274 voters, were eligible to go to the polls in 104 districts to elect 208 members of the Sixth Sejm. Certainty of a Governmental victory was on the fact that candidates were named by pro-Government commissions as well as the fact of the opposition boycott. A 70 per cent majority was predicted. Of the 440 candidates, 376 are members of the Camp of National Unity, 40 are Ukrainians, five are Jews, and several are from the opposition groups, despite the boycott.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
