Leftist coalition wins Polish elections.

Warsaw--Voters in Poland's September 23,2001, federal elections showed their apathy and disgust when only 46% of the electorate bothered to Vote.

The coalition of the ex-Communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the socialist Labor Union (UP) garnered 41.5% of the vote--not enough to form a majority in the Sejm, the Polish lower house of Parliament.

Five other parties will figure in the new parliament. Civic Platform, a centrist, liberal, pro-business, pro-European Union party reflecting Poland's new urban middle class received almost 13% of the vote.

Three rural and family parties received a combined 27% of the vote. They demonstrate the depth of discontent among Poland's farmers over agricultural reforms that would be necessary to gain membership in the European Union (EU). One of them, the League of Polish Families (LPR), a Catholic group, was a big surprise with almost 8% of the vote support. It is also the party which received the most votes from Polish voters casting their ballots in America. The other two rural parties are the radical farmers' group, Samoobrona with 10.2% and the Polish Peasant Party with 8.9%. Neither the ex-communists nor the liberals oppose joining the EU.

The fifth party, Law and Justice, focusing on corruption and street crime, received 9.5%. The new left government will have to strike an informal alliance--if not an outright coalition-- with one of the right-wing parties to form a majority.

The unborn could be the big losers, depending on how a coalition forms. The left-wing SLD-UP alliance has announced that it will move toward abortion on demand from the country's present law which allows abortion only in case of irreparable damage to the unborn baby, direct and serious danger to the woman's health, or when pregnancy results from rape. A new law on abortion may not be realized because the other parties generally are opposed to abortion on demand.

One final point: the coalition of the previous government under Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek and Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek has been annihilated. The heirs of Lech Walesa's Solidarity movement will not get even one seat in the new parliament because at 5.6% of the vote, they failed the 8% hurdle required of coalitions. With a 16% unemployment rate, the voters wanted to try a new economic program. If it fails, more unrest is in store for Poland.