The World - News from April 24, 1989

Led by Lech Walesa, members of Poland’s Solidarity trade union and allied opposition groups approved 252 independent candidates for national legislative elections Walesa, Solidarity’s leader, declined to run. The 252 candidates, by receiving the endorsement of the Solidarity Citizens Committee, are now eligible to run for a new 100-member senate or for the 161 available opposition seats in the existing 460-member upper house known as the Sejm, or Parliament. Candidates for the nine remaining seats open to the opposition will be selected in the next few days, a Solidarity spokesman said. The elections, a result of round-table talks between the government and the opposition, will be the most democratic elections in Poland’s postwar history.