1995 Polish presidential election

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1995 Polish presidential election

← 1990 5 November 1995 (first round)
19 November 1995 (second round)
2000 →
Turnout64.70% (first round)
68.23% (second round)
  Aleksander Kwasniewski (cropped).jpg Lech Wałęsa prezydent RP (cropped).jpg
Nominee Aleksander Kwaśniewski Lech Wałęsa
Party SLD Independent
Popular vote 9,704,439 9,058,176
Percentage 51.72% 48.28%

Polish presidential elections, 1995, second round results by voivodeships.svg
Second round results by voivodeship

President before election

Lech Wałęsa
Independent

President

Aleksander Kwaśniewski
SLD

A presidential election was held in Poland on 5 November 1995, with a second round on 19 November.[1] The leader of Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, and incumbent President Lech Wałęsa advanced to the second round. Kwaśniewski won the election, collecting 51.7 percent of votes in the run-off, against 48.3 percent for Lech Wałęsa.

Background[]

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).

Candidates[]

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

Withdrawn[]

  • Businessman Bogdan Pawłowski (Independent), 50

Results[]

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
CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Aleksander KwaśniewskiDemocratic Left Alliance6,275,67035.119,704,43951.72
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
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 KoźlukIndependent27,2590.15
Kazimierz PiotrowiczIndependent12,5910.07
Leszek BubelIndependent6,8250.04
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[]

  1. ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  • 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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