WORLD : Gen. Jaruzelski Wins Presidency of Poland by Margin of One Vote
Communist leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski was elected to the country’s new powerful presidency today by a margin of one vote in the National Assembly.
The vote was 270 for, 233 against and 34 abstaining. There were 537 valid votes and 269 were required to win.
Most of the dissenters were believed to be members of the Solidarity opposition movement. Solidarity’s parliamentary leader Bronislaw Geremek told the Assembly before the vote that its members were free to vote as they wished but Solidarity could not forget Jaruzelski’s imposition of martial law in 1981 to suppress the free trade union.
Applause broke out in the ranks of the Communist Party after an official read out the result. But whistles of disapproval were also heard, and some Communist leaders looked upset and worried by the narrow win.
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