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1995 Polish presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Poland on 5 November 1995, with a second round on 19 November.[1] The leader of Social Democracy, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, and incumbent President Lech Wałęsa advanced to the second round. Kwaśniewski won the election with 52% of the vote in the run-off against 48% for Wałęsa.

1995 Polish presidential election
← 1990 5 November 1995 (first round)
19 November 1995 (second round)		 2000 →
Turnout64.70% (first round) Increase4.07pp
68.23% (second round) Increase14.83pp
 
Defense.gov News Photo 030114-D-9880W-029 (cropped3).png
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Nominee Aleksander Kwaśniewski Lech Wałęsa
Party SdRP Independent[a]
Popular vote 9,704,439 9,058,176
Percentage 51.72% 48.28%
Second round results by voivodeship
President before election

Lech Wałęsa
Independent

Elected President

Aleksander Kwaśniewski
SdRP

Background edit

The two favorites throughout the course of the campaign were the leader of the post-communist SLD Aleksander Kwaśniewski and incumbent President Lech Wałęsa. Kwaśniewski ran a campaign of change and blamed the economic problems in Poland on the post-Solidarity right. His campaign slogan was "Let's choose the future" (Wybierzmy przyszłość). Political opponents challenged his candidacy, and produced evidence to show that he had lied about his education in registration documents and public presentations. There was also some mystery over his graduation from university. A law court confirmed that Kwaśniewski had lied about his record, but did not penalize him for it, judging the information irrelevant to the election result. Meanwhile, Wałęsa was a very unpopular President and some opinion polls even showed that he might not make it into the second round. He was challenged by other post-Solidarity politicians of all sides of the political spectrum ranging from liberal former Minister of Labour and Social Policy Jacek Kuroń to ultraconservative former Prime Minister Jan Olszewski. Rather than focusing on his presidency, he focused on his personal image as an everyday man turned international hero that was created for him while he was chairman of Solidarity. His campaign slogan was "There are many candidates but there is only one Lech Wałęsa" (Kandydatów jest wielu – Lech Wałęsa tylko jeden).[2]

Candidates edit

  • Jurist Tadeusz Koźluk (Independent), 65
  • Mechanic Kazimierz Piotrowicz (Independent), 51

Withdrawn edit

  • Businessman Bogdan Pawłowski (Independent), 50

Opinion polls edit

Poll publisher Date of polling Kwaśniewski
SdRP 		Wałęsa
IN 		Kuroń
UW 		Olszewski
RdR 		Pawlak
PSL 		Zieliński [pl]
UP 		Gronkiewicz-Waltz
IN 		Others and
Undecideds
Election results 5 November 1995 35.11 33.11 9.22 6.86 4.31 3.53 2.76 5.1
Gazeta Wyborcza 1 November 1995 34 31 11 4 3 6 4 7
Wprost 24 October 1995 34 24 11 4 6 7 7 7
Gazeta Wyborcza 22 October 1995 27 23 8 3 4 5 5 25
Września Primary [pl] 15 October 1995 48.8 12.7 38.5
Gazeta Wyborcza 15 October 1995 27 22 7 3 4 6 8 23
Gazeta Wyborcza 9 October 1995 27 17 6 6 5 10 12 17
Gazeta Wyborcza 15 September 1995 26 12 8 2 4 11 12 24
Election called by Sejm Marshal Józef Zych (9 September 1995)[3]
Wprost 27 August 1995 23 14 10 2 3 11 12 25
Wprost 9 July 1995 26 11 12 <1 4 11 12 26
Wprost 6 June 1995 20 8 15 3 3 15 <1 36
Sources: [4][2]

Results edit

Kwaśniewski won with 51.7 percent of votes in the run-off. 64.7% of citizens cast their votes during the first round, 98.2% of those were valid. 68.2% of citizens cast their vote during the second round, 98.0% of those were valid.

 
Winners of the first round by voivodeship
 
Winners of the second round by powiats (in 1999 borders)
CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Aleksander KwaśniewskiSocial Democracy of the Republic of Poland[5]6,275,67035.119,704,43951.72
Lech WałęsaIndependent5,917,32833.119,058,17648.28
Jacek KurońFreedom Union1,646,9469.22
Jan OlszewskiMovement for the Republic1,225,4536.86
Waldemar PawlakPolish People's Party770,4194.31
Tadeusz Zieliński [pl]Labor Union631,4323.53
Hanna Gronkiewicz-WaltzIndependent492,6282.76
Janusz Korwin-MikkeReal Politics Union428,9692.40
Andrzej LepperSelf-Defence of the Republic of Poland235,7971.32
Jan PietrzakIndependent201,0331.12
Tadeusz Koźluk [pl]Independent27,2590.15
Kazimierz Piotrowicz [pl]Independent12,5910.07
Leszek Bubel [pl]Independent6,8250.04
Total17,872,350100.0018,762,615100.00
Valid votes17,872,35098.1818,762,61598.00
Invalid/blank votes330,8681.82383,8812.00
Total votes18,203,218100.0019,146,496100.00
Registered voters/turnout28,136,33264.7028,062,40968.23
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References edit

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  2. ^ a b Dudek, Antoni (2023). Historia polityczna Polski 1989–2023 [Polish political history 1989-2023] (in Polish). Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar. ISBN 978-83-67450-66-9.
  3. ^ "Dz.U. 1995 nr 103 poz. 509".
  4. ^ Pienkos, Donald (1997-11-04). THE 1995 POLISH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: A STEP TOWARD NORMALCY. p. 407 / 13.
  5. ^ Szewczak, Natalia (2020-07-13). "75 kandydatów na prezydenta w ciągu 30 lat. Czy pamiętasz choć połowę tych nazwisk?". Retrieved 2024-04-20.
  1. ^ Although Wałęsa was officially an independent, his campaign was endorsed and staffed by BBWR and SND [pl].
  • Obwieszczenie PKW z dn. 7 XI 1995 r., Dziennik Ustaw Nr 126, poz. 604;
  • Obwieszczenie PKW z dn. 7 XI 1995 r., Dz.U. Nr 131, poz. 636
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