1989 Polish parliamentary election

Poland's vote of June 4, 1989 was only partly free: 65 percent of Sejm seats were reserved in advance for the Communist party and its allies, and just 161 were open. Solidarity took all 161 and every Senate seat but one. It is on this list because the half-measure still broke the regime. The scale of the rejection made the reserved majority unworkable, and in August the Sejm backed Tadeusz Mazowiecki as prime minister, the first non-communist head of government in Eastern Europe in over 40 years. The warning sign was turnout, a low 62.7 percent in the first round and 25 percent in the second, a reminder that founding elections do not always draw the crowds their importance deserves.