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1922 Polish presidential elections
	9 December election
Chief of State before election; Józef Piłsudski; Independent	Elected President ; Gabriel Narutowicz; Independent
	22 December election
President before election; Maciej Rataj (acting); PSL	Elected President ; Stanisław Wojciechowski; PSL

Two indirect presidential elections were held in Poland in December 1922. In the first election on 9 December Gabriel Narutowicz was elected president, but he was assassinated five days later. A second election on 22 December was won by Stanisław Wojciechowski.

First election

After the independence of Poland, the head of state was Naczelnik Państwa Józef Piłsudski. In a new constitution adopted by the Polish Sejm, the new head of state was to be the President of Republic of Poland - to be choose by the National Assembly (combined Sejm and Senate). After the parliamentary election, planning began for the first Polish presidential election in history.

The main probable candidate Józef Piłsudski, despite calls for him to contend, did not run for election. He proposed a former Prime Minister, Wincenty Witos, for presidency. Witos also refused. Finally Piłsudski supported the candidature of Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabriel Narutowicz.

At the time of the election the main candidates were count Maurycy Zamoyski, the candidate of National Democracy and Stanisław Wojciechowski, candidate of Polish People's Party "Piast". Narutowicz's good result was a surprise. Once the long voting was over, Zamoyski and Narutowicz advanced to the fifth ballot. Narutowicz finally won the election with the support of "Piast" (Wojciechowski was eliminated on the fourth round).

Narutowicz was sworn in as president on 11 December 1922, but was assassinated five days later.^[1]

Candidates

Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabriel Narutowicz
Diplomat Maurycy Zamoyski
Former Minister of the Interior Stanisław Wojciechowski
Linguist Jan Baudouin de Courtenay
Former Prime Minister Ignacy Daszyński

Results

Candidate		Party	First ballot		Second ballot		Third ballot		Fourth ballot		Fifth ballot
Candidate		Party	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
	Gabriel Narutowicz	PSL "Wyzwolenie"	62	11.46	151	27.81	158	29.21	171	31.67	289	56.01
	Maurycy Zamoyski	ZLN	222	41.04	228	41.99	228	42.14	224	41.48	227	43.99
	Stanisław Wojciechowski	PSL "Piast"	105	19.41	153	28.18	150	27.73	145	26.85	Withdrew
	Jan Baudouin de Courtenay	National minorities	103	19.04	10	1.84	5	0.92	Withdrew
	Ignacy Daszyński	PPS	49	9.06	1	0.18	Withdrew
Source: Urbankowski^[2]

Second election

The first election, when President of the Republic of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz was elected after several rounds by joint chambers of Sejm and Senate (at time of Second Polish Republic joint parliament elected president. The first direct vote took place in 1990). Narutowicz, however, was assassinated just five days since taking office. According to the Constitution the Sejm Marshal Maciej Rataj became Acting President of the Republic of Poland and organised new elections, which took place on 20 December. Stanislaw Wojciechowski won the second election, and took office on 22 December.^[3]

Candidates

Kazimierz Morawski (put on ballot by National Democracy; supporter by allied right-wing parties), philologist and academician from Jagiellonian University
Stanisław Wojciechowski (put on ballot by Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie"; supported also by Polish Socialist Party, agrarians and minorities), former Minister of Interior and one of the leading candidates in previous election