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"True & Cruel." It was all over at 7 p.m. Although the results would not be announced until next week, no one doubted that the Government had won an overwhelming victory. Said one voter, recalling the "dead elections" of 1935 under the rightist government of "The Colonels": "That was faked too, but compared to this it was harmless. ... In 1935 the Government did not care whether the people voted or not so long as it retained power. Now the Government has adopted the Russian attitude that everyone must vote for the Government."
Despairing Stanislaw Mikolajczyk announced at week's end that he would ask the Supreme Court to nullify the elections because of widespread violations of law, and would possibly forward a protest to the Big Three, who had guaranteed free elections. But Mikolajczyk himself could only look forward to being kicked out of the Government and waiting to see how far the Government would go to smash his party and end his opposition for good. Said he, mulling over a TIME report (Dec. 9) that had said he had "the highest popularity and the lowest life-expectancy" in Poland: "Lowest life-expectancy. It's true, it's true. But still, it's cruel to read."
A TIME correspondent who had been followed from polling place to polling place by police was greeted by a police colonel in the cheeriest Yalta tradition: "Well, I guess you see for yourself and you will be able to write favorable reports."