Zasada tajności głosowania w wyborach do Sejmu PRL I kadencji z 26 października 1952 r.

Abstract

The article describes one of the essential elements of the electoral process, i.e. the principle of secret voting in the elections to the Sejm of the Polish People’s Republic (in Polish PRL) of the first term. The overt actions of the authorities taken in the legal and political sphere, i.e. regulations, declarations, and election propaganda, were analysed. These actions were then confronted with the electoral practice, i.e. the voting on 26 October 1952, and the accompanying parapolitical abuses, which are the hidden relations between the public sphere of the state (the Polish United Workers’ Party, in Polish PZPR) and the political processes and arrangements occurring outside official politics. The juxtaposition of these two spheres – overt and covert – made it possible to present a real picture of the functioning of the principle of secrecy in the elections to the Sejm of the Polish People’s Republic of the first term.