GOVERNMENT'S BIG LEAD

Chronicle (Levin), 21 January 1947, Page 8

GOVERNMENT'S BIG LEAD

Press Assn.

rrovisional Returns In The Polish Elections VIEWS 0N SECRECY DIFFER

3y Telegraph .

-Copyright

Received Tuesday, 10.15 a.m. LONDON, Jan. 20. Official provisional election returns from 394 districts in Polarrd, including 49 from Warsaw, show the Government bloc to have 650,287 votes, the Peasant Party 53,146, the Work Party 27,449, the Independent Catholics 6399, the Dissident Peasants 2460 and others 1251. American correspondents, in their dispatches, agree that voting was reasonably secret in Warsaw, but in the country> fchere yvas litle chance to check the careful preparations made in the smaRer towns and villages for' an overwhelming vote of confidence in the Government. The Kxchange Telegraph 's correspondeut in Warsaw says lespite official . assurances that foreign joui'nalists wonld he allowed to witness the counting of votes the ot'Iieials at oue Warsaw polliiig station asked Ihe Kxehange Telegraph and two oth.er eurrespondents to leave whcn prejrarations were being made to hreak the seals of the hallot box, and the oflicials refused to hegin the eount until they left. The eorrespondenls were denied admissiou when they attempted to protest at the Central Kleetoral C'om-" mission 's offiee. A ( lovermtieiit eonununi(|iie states that 16 underground banl i 1 s were killed in election da> outrages in l(i loealities. Kiglu Nohliers gnarding the polling stations were wounded. (langsters lired on ])eop!e quoueiiig to vote and atteni])led to dynamile oue polling station. The New York Herald Tribune's correspondent said that in the eourse of a 250-mile drive through [ the country outside Warsaw he j ubserved open voting practised at ' every polling booth he- visited. ! However, manv voters insisted on j voting see.retly, and no propagan- | dist or physical coercion was exer- ! eised by the Polish security police, oi' anyone else, to force open voting. Mr. Ral]ih Ingersoll, former editor of P.M., eabling from Warsaw, said voting was l'ree and lionest. Ile saw orderly lines of peoI ple passing through the voting i lonis in Warsaw. Mr. Ingersoll ; said he talked to Opposition pah J watcliers, who said they had noth- | ing to eomplain about, and people i liad not been intimidated. j Tlic gciiiinil iinjirt'ssioii was lluil ihe i Polish oli-oi ions wt'io onlcrly luit thero, was nol icca titi' prcssure on inosf of 1110 ! cli'ci ors \oling sccrt'tly, says Tio' Tiint's' Warsaw corresjionilcnl. ' Tlio Daily llorald's corn'spomtan! [ i'oiiinl no atloinpls al sforocy al ihe ! lioollis even by a ciu'laiii or screen. ! .Most of ihe voters, liowever, Jiehl their i slips so that ihe iiunilier on tliem was invisilile hefore being plaeeil in the tiii- | velope wliii-h the presiilent of the KlecI toral Pommission tliun droppe'l into Ihe j n r n. j Pkrninian Xationalist forces at tackeii a polling station at Ksko in j Poland's extreine southeast corner, sayi ihe Daily Telegraph 's Wars'au corres1 poioieiits. The attaekers .were ilriven j oliy losing two killed and s'ix captured. I Earlier • messag'es stated lliaf Mr. V ik'olajezyk, ,t he hunter of the Polisir Peasant Ihirtyy dias" ihi.uietitfe'gTrl' t.'hgt liy will demand tliat the Polish elections i>e animlled, 011 the gTovuids tliat they were not free and unfettered as is required by the Big' Three, says Reuter's Warsaw corerspondent. .Mr. .M i kolajc/.yk said: "In spite of the irreguhuities I believe my party wonld obtain a lna.jority if the observers |>resent eould assnre fairness in tlu1 counting." M r, .Mikolajczyk added tliat he had now handed a Xote to the. Bi'itish and American Embassies dctailing the charges. Outside Observers' Views , . All niessages from Warsaw agree tliat the polling was heavy, lmt, in the main orderly. Correspondents do not agree about the secrecy or otherwise of the baliol. Reuter's Warsaw correspondent said tliat after visiting the polling stations in various paris of Warsaw he eould atiirm that Ihe actual process of casting votes appeared to be ^ proceedjng secret ly and freely. The authorit ies did not provide curtained bootlis, but the voters brought the ballols already fohled and placed tliem in tlie envelopes provided. It was impossible for Ihe eleetoral officers to see for Avliom tlie votes had lieen east. O11 tlie oiher hand the Associated Press eorrespondent saiil that the balloting was singularly laeking in ? secrecy. (lovernment Bloc organisers Ih rough 011 f Poland rounded up the voters and lcd tliem to the polls in C groups. The. voters were said to hgve been lold that tlie alteratives to . voling for bloc ea ndidates were the loss ■g of eniploynient or im]irisonment . Af.ist of Ihe voters carried a plainJy visible pieee nl' paper bearing the q lmml'ier llu'ee — the mimhpr usoil to vote for the Oovernment Bloc. The Poles ;j0 elipped liieir nuinbera frnm Ihe newspapera or seeured tliem from party ,q organisers. Election oflieials held an open en velope readv for eaeh voter to p drop in his numbered slip. Some Poles fohled their slips, but in most eases the offleials wero able to see the. numbers. Oftisials prevented the voters from sealing the envelopes. Bcores of Poles said that they eould not vote for their

cohvietio.li.s. It ' was vote 'fhi' .ythe,. CfoyernntftiiT/J^lotT or lose everytlimg.- ;'v Tiro ' iiyhited/ . Press' ^prf e.-j poVulen'f sa\V that the aveVafge 'PoiiRli voter had a 50-50 chanc.e of voting seeretly. He found two bootlis wirh screened partitions among 20 wlien lie visited Warsaw. .Many voters tnmed awav from the otticials and quickly slipped tlie ballot into envelopes. The police tlie previous night called at many blocks of flats and gave inslructions for ]>arties to assomble in tlie morning at stated jioints. The street s before inidday were filled witli liiarch ers dressed in their Kunday best. Tlie Britisli lTnited Press' Lublin eorrespondei.it reports that no Peasant Party observers were present at the booths he visited. He went into oue booth in a village near Lvblin and notieed that, in contravention of the eleetoral law, ballots with the printed number three were displayed 011 the table. The correspondent asked for a number fonr — oue of the numbers allotled to Mr. Hikolajezyk 's party — but was told that tliese had all lieen used. The Warsaw correspondent of the Daily Telegraph emphasised tliat the (ioveniiuent election nninber in every district was three, whereatL the Peasant Party 's number was -eonfusingly varied in every district. The correspondent added that at every booth he visited the voters had to make tlieir deeision in I'ull view of the polling officials, without the secrecy of. a cubicle. The Kxchange Telegraph correspondent says tliat none of the balloting envelopes ensured seereey. They were supposed to be sealed, but none was gummed. Mr. Mikolajezyk detailed how hir observers had been banned from the 1 various eleetoral divisions, For in 1 stanee, he had asked for 160 in Ihe Warsaw district s, and was grapted 22 and 90 in Lodz, where he was granted 28. Tn anotlier district. he liad asked for 200, au'd was granted 20 — and 1 f 1 of them had been arrested. ell added i that this afterijoon, when he drove tc the polls, lorrylpads of ■students drove up and sliouted: "Go to London. We don 't want Anglo-Aiperican- ambassa doxe here. ? ' 1