e four-year terms), and a lower house, the
Sejm (460 seats; members are elected under a complex system of
proportional representation to serve four-year terms); the
designation of National Assembly or Zgromadzenie Narodowe is only
used on those rare occasions when the two houses meet jointly
elections: Senate - last held 25 September 2005 (next to be held by
September 2009); Sejm elections last held September 25 2005 (next to
be held by September 2009)
election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
party - PiS 49, PO 34, LPR 7, SO 3, PSL 2, independents 5; Sejm -
percent of vote by party - PiS 27%, PO 24.1%, SO 11.4%, SLD 11.3%,
LPR 8%, PSL 7%, other 11.2%; seats by party - PiS 155, PO 133, SO
56, SLD 55, LPR 34, PSL 25, German minorities 2
note: two seats are assigned to ethnic minority parties in the Sejm
only

Judicial branch:
Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president on the
recommendation of the National Council of the Judiciary for an
indefinite period); Constitutional Tribunal (judges are chosen by
the Sejm for nine-year terms)

Political parties and leaders:
Catholic-National Movement or RKN [Antoni MACIEREWICZ]; Civic
Platform or PO [Donald TUSK]; Conservative Peasants Party or KL
[Artur BALAZS]; Democratic Left Alliance or SLD [Jozef OLEKSY]; Dom
Ojczysty (Fatherland Home); Freedom Union or UW [Wladyslaw
FRASYNIUK]; German Minority of Lower Silesia or MNSO [Henryk KROLL];
Law and Justice or PiS [Jaroslaw KACZYNSKI]; League of Polish
Families or LPR [Marek KOTLINOWSKI]; Movement for the Reconstruction
of Poland or ROP [Jan OLSZEWSKI]; Peasant-Democratic Party or PLD
[Roman JAGIELINSKI]; Polish Accord or PP [Jan LOPUSZANSKI]; Polish
Peasant Party or PSL [Waldemar PAWLAK]; Samoobrona or SO [Andrzej
LEPPER]; Social Democratic Party of Poland or SDPL [Marek BOROWSKI];
Social Movement or RS [Krzysztof PIESIEWICZ]; Union of Labor or UP
[Izabela JARUGA-NOWACKA]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
All Poland Trade Union Alliance or OPZZ (trade union) [Jan GUZ];
Roman Catholic Church [Cardinal Jozef GLEMP]; Solidarity Trade Union
[Janusz SNIADEK]

International organization participation:
ACCT (observer), Australia Group, BIS, BSEC (observer), CBSS, CE,
CEI, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EU (new member), FAO, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO,
ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO,
Interpol, IOC, IOM, IS