Polish presidential election, 1995

Polish presidential election, 1995

5 November 1995 (first round) 19 November 1995 (second round)

Turnout 64.7% (first round) 68.2% (second round)   Nominee Aleksander Kwaśniewski Lech Wałęsa Party SLD Independent Popular vote 9,704,439 9,058,176 Percentage 51.7% 48.3%

Second round results by voivodeship

President before election Lech Wałęsa Independent President Aleksander Kwaśniewski SLD

Presidential elections were held in Poland on 5 November 1995, with a second round on 19 November.^[1] Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Lech Wałęsa passed 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, the former Solidarity leader.

Background

Kwaśniewski's campaign slogans were "Let's choose the future" (Wybierzmy przyszłość) and "A Poland for all" (Wspólna Polska). Political opponents disputed his victory, 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 penalise him for it, judging the information irrelevant to the election result.

Candidates

• 

  Former Chair of Social Democracy Aleksander Kwaśniewski

• 

  Activist Andrzej Lepper

• 

  Chairman of Unia Polityki Realnej Janusz Korwin-Mikke

• 

  Former Prime Minister Jan Olszewski

• 

  Former Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak

• 

  Former Chairman of the Solidarity movement Lech Wałęsa

• Activist Leszek Bubel
• Activist Tadeusz Koźluk
• Comedian Jan Pietrzak
• Activist Kazimierz Piotrowicz

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

Candidate	Party	First round		Second round
		Votes	%	Votes	%
Aleksander Kwaśniewski	Democratic Left Alliance	6,275,670	35.1	9,704,439	51.7
Lech Wałęsa	Independent	5,917,328	33.1	9,058,176	48.3
Jacek Kuroń	Freedom Union	1,646,946	9.2
Jan Olszewski	Movement for the Republic	1,225,453	6.9
Waldemar Pawlak	Polish People's Party	770,419	4.3
Tadeusz Zieliński	Labor Union	631,432	3.5
Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz	Independent	492,628	2.8
Janusz Korwin-Mikke	Real Politics Union	428,969	2.4
Andrzej Lepper	Self-Defense of the Polish Republic	235,797	1.3
Jan Pietrzak	Independent	201,033	1.1
Tadeusz Koźluk	Independent	27,259	0.2
Kazimierz Piotrowicz	Independent	12,591	0.1
Leszek Bubel	Independent	6,825	0.0
Invalid/blank votes		330,868	–	383,881	–
Total		18,203,218	100	19,146,496	100
Registered voters/turnout		28,136,332	64.7	28,062,409	68.2
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

References

1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (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