MASSIVE MAJORITY FOR COALITION

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5308, 22 January 1947, Page 5

MASSIVE MAJORITY FOR COALITION

( Press Assn-

polish electtons UNOFFICIAL RETURNS GIVE 327 TO 24

-Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

WARSAW, Jan. 21. Warsaw Raclio has broadcast what it calls the final unofhcial election results for the whole of Poland. They give the Government coalition 327 seats in the Legislative Assembly, against 24 for the Polish Peasant Party. It is expeeted that of the 444 members in the new Parliament, about 390 will be Government supporters. M. Mikolajczyk, who has already announced that he will asik the Supreme Court to declare the elections invalid, said that his charges would include intimidation of eiectors and violation of the secrecy of the ballot. It is announced by the Warsaw police that at least 23 people were killed in election day disturhances. American correspondents in their dispatches agree that the voting was reasonably secret in Warsaw, hut in the country there was little chance to cheek the careful preparations made in the smaller towns and villages for an overwhelming vote of confidence in the Government. The correspondent of the New York Herald-Tribune said that in a 250-mile drive through the country outside Warsaw he observed open voting practised at every polling huoth he visited. Ilowever, many voters insisted on voting secretly, and no propangandist or physical coercion was exercised by the Polish security police or anyone else to i'oree open voting. Mr. Ralph Ingersoll, former editor of the New York newspaper, P.M!, cahling from Warsaw, said the voting was free and honest. He saw orderly lines of people passing through voting rooms in Warsaw. Ingersoll said he tnlked to Opposition ipoll watchers, who said they had nothing to complain about, and the people had not heen intimidated. Otficial provisional election returns from 394 districts of Poland, including 49 from Warsaw, show the distri-!-;tion of votes as follows: — Government bloe 650,287; Peasant Party 53,146; Work Party 27,449; Independent Catholics 6399; Dissident Peasants 2460; Others 1251.