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- <text id=91TT2499>
- <title>
- Nov. 11, 1991: World Notes:Poland
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Nov. 11, 1991 Somebody's Watching
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 67
- World Notes
- POLAND
- No Voters, No Victor
- </hdr><body>
- <p> It was hardly surprising that, facing a dauntingly complex
- ballot, almost 57% of the electorate failed to vote last week
- in Poland's first free parliamentary elections since World War
- II. Even more frustrated by the country's failure to achieve
- postcommunist prosperity, those who did go to the polls chose
- no clear victor and no clear course for the nation: 29 parties
- will be represented in Poland's 460-seat lower house, and none
- will have more than 62 seats.
- </p>
- <p> With little prospect that any coalition can form a durable
- majority, President Lech Walesa proposed doubling his duties by
- becoming his own Prime Minister. Though such an arrangement
- seemed to flout the spirit of Poland's constitution, no one else
- appeared eager to take on the job of leading the country's
- painful reconstruction. Walesa's bold but troubling suggestion,
- wisecracked one critic, at least offered the possibility of a
- government "able to count on the full loyalty of the President."
- But whoever winds up with the job has little hope of finding a
- painless route to economic reform.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-