Polish Regime, Foes OK New Senate, Free Elections

Polish Communist Party and opposition negotiators announced agreement Thursday on a major reorganization of the nation’s political system that would provide for democratic elections to a new legislative chamber in June as well as a powerful new presidency.

In a major breakthrough for round-table talks on Poland’s future, negotiators agreed on a system of government that would be controlled by the Communist leadership but could contain a degree of opposition representation unprecedented in the Soviet Bloc. The elections to the proposed senate would be the first democratic vote under Communist rule in Poland.

Negotiators said they have not yet settled on the powers of the new senate and president, although it was acknowledged that the senate is to be a weak body and the presidency powerful. Opposition delegation chief Bronislaw Geremek said the specific responsibilities of the new legislative body were less important than the fact that it would be chosen by “a democratic and unrestricted election.”

“We are trying to set up institutions that will lead to democracy,” Geremek told a press conference. “I am old enough to have seen democratic elections. I want to see them again.”

The political reorganization is part of a broad package of agreements that the opposition and party are expected to sign April 3. The package also includes legalizing the Solidarity independent trade union, Rural Solidarity and independent student unions.

The senate elections would be the first completely open campaign in the Soviet Bloc since the early years after World War II, when Hungary and Czechoslovakia staged multiparty elections. Poland allowed independent parties to compete in a 1947 election, but a senior Communist official admitted several years ago that the results were falsified.

The Polish senate elections would go beyond those scheduled this month for the new Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies in that no seats would be reserved for official candidates. While Communist and other official organizations have had the exclusive right to nominate candidates for most of the seats of the Soviet chamber, every seat in the Polish senate could be contested by party, opposition and independent candidates.

The senate, of at least 98 members, is to be balanced in the National Assembly by the existing lower house, or Sejm, which by prior agreement will be controlled by the Communist Party and its allies. Geremek said negotiators had settled on a division of the Sejm’s 460 seats so that 65% would be elected from among party and other official groups while the remaining 35% would be open to opposition and independent candidates.

The president, to be elected by a joint session of the two houses, would serve six years and have the right to dissolve the assembly. Geremek said the opposition had accepted creation of such a presidency, which inevitably will be controlled by the Communists, in exchange for the freely elected senate, which could be dominated by non-party representatives.

Zbigniew Bujak, the Solidarity leader in Warsaw, said the opposition expected that the senate would be given the right of veto over some economic legislation and would also deal with human rights questions.

Several opposition negotiators said it was widely expected that the Communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, would assume the office of president. However, they said they expected that Jaruzelski would simultaneously resign from his position as first secretary of the Communist Party, the current position of power.

Geremek said the party also had agreed in principle to a reorganization of local government in Poland along democratic lines, with each village and town being allowed to elect its mayor and council.

Opposition negotiators said the elections could be chaotic, in part because there are no organized opposition parties.

Although an opposition umbrella group headed by Solidarity founder Lech Walesa could nominate candidates for both the Sejm and senate, any person may run for either house by gathering signatures on a petition.