1995 Polish presidential election

1995 Polish presidential election
Turnout	64.70% (first round) 4.07pp; 68.23% (second round) 14.83pp
President before election; Lech Wałęsa; Independent	Elected President ; Aleksander Kwaśniewski; SdRP

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.

Background

The elections were called on 9 September 1995.

Candidate selection

Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland

Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Social Democracy

Member of the Sejm (1989-2005)

Potential candidates
Aleksander Kwaśniewski	Józef Oleksy

Chairman of Social Democracy (1990-1995)	Prime Minister of Poland (1995-1996)

During SdRP's Congress on 13 May, Kwaśniewski secured his party's endorsement for President with 296 out of 300 votes. Some delegates believed Józef Oleksy should become the candidate instead.^[2]^[3]

Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms

Lech Wałęsa
Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms

President of Poland (1990-1995)

Lech Wałęsa was selected as the Bloc's candidate.^[2].

Freedom Union

Jacek Kuroń
Freedom Union

Member of the Sejm (1989-1993)

Potential candidates
Jacek Kuroń	Janusz Onyszkiewicz	Hanna Suchocka

Minister of Labour and Social Policy (1992-1993)	Minister of National Defence (1992-1993)	Prime Minister of Poland (1992-1993)

During the 2nd Congress of the Freedom Union, three candidates decided to enter the party's candidate selection process: Jacek Kuroń, Janusz Onyszkiewicz and Hanna Suchocka. Suchocka, despite being the highest-ranking of the former three candidates, came last in the first round. The second round of voting saw Kuroń defeat Onyszkiewicz by a slight margin of 11 votes, and the former Minister of Labour became the party's official candidate for President.^[2]

Movement for the Republic

Jan Olszewski
Movement for the Republic

Prime Minister of Poland (1991-1992)

Olszewski was selected as the Movement's candidate.^[2]

Polish People's Party

Waldemar Pawlak
Polish People's Party

Member of the Sejm (1989-1993)

Pawlak was selected as the Party's candidate.^[2]

Convent of St. Catherine

Hanna Gronkiewcz-Waltz
Convent of Saint Catherine

President of the National Bank (1992-2001)

Potential candidates
Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz	Leszek Moczulski	Jan Olszewski	Adam Strzembosz	Henryk Bąk	Wojciech Ziembiński	Roman Ciesielski	Jan Parys

President of the National Bank of Poland (1992-2001)	Member of the Sejm (1993-1997)	Prime Minister of Poland (1991-1992)	Chairman of the Supreme Court of Poland (1990-1998)	Deputy Marshal of the Sejm (1991-1993)	Anti-communist oppositionist	Member of the Senat (1989-1991)	Minister of National Defence (1991-1992)

In November 1994, the Convent of St. Catherine was organised by Józef Maj [pl], coordinating several extraparliamentary center to right-wing parties, like the Christian-Democratic Labour Party, Confederation of Independent Poland, Party of Christian Democrats, Peasants' Agreement, Polish People's Party (Mikołaczykowskie faction) [pl], Movement for the Republic, Third Republic Movement, Party of Polish Democracy, National-Democratic Party [pl], Christian National Union, Polish Union, Solidarity or Rural Solidarity. The Convent's purpose was to serve as a discussion forum for the marginal extraparliamentary parties trying to coalesce into a political force able to cross the 5% threshold and enter the Sejm after the last election's wipeout result for the fragmented parties.^[4] In the Summer of 1995, the Convent agreed to hold meetings to select a joint presidential candidate for that year's election. Out of the many candidates that expressed interest in becoming the candidate, the quickest to withdraw was Jan Parys, soon after Roman Ciesielski [pl], Wojciech Ziembinski [pl], Henryk Bąk [pl] and Adam Strzembosz [pl] stopped being contenders. The remaining candidates, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Leszek Moczulski and Jan Olszewski, ultimately entered a dispute over the results a ballot held to elect the Convent's candidate, as on the 19th of July, Gronkiewicz-Waltz's, followed by Olszewski's supporters both claimed victory for their candidates. Due to the inability of the Convent to decide on a candidate, it was ultimately disbanded and all three of the remaining candidates ran their own presidential campaigns, though Moczulski ultimately withdrew and endorsed Wałęsa.^[4]^[2]

Other candidates

Tadeusz Zieliński	Janusz Korwin-Mikke	Andrzej Lepper	Jan Pietrzak	Tadeusz Koźluk	Kazimierz Piotrowicz	Leszek Bubel
Labour Union	Real Politics Union	Samoobrona	Independent	Independent	Independent	Independent

Ombudsman in Poland (1992-1996)	Member of the Sejm (1991-1993)	Agriculturist	Satirist	Lawyer	Entrepreneur	Member of the Sejm (1991-1993)

Withdrawn candidates

Lech Kaczyński	Marek Markiewicz	Leszek Moczulski	Bogdan Pawłowski
Centre Agreement	Republicans Party	Confederation of Independent Poland	Independent

Member of the Sejm (1991-1993)	Chairman of KRRiT (1993-1994)	Member of the Sejm (1993-1997)	Entrepreneur
Endorsed Jan Olszewski	Endorsed Lech Wałęsa	Endorsed Lech Wałęsa	Endorsed Lech Wałęsa

Rejected candidates

The following candidates registered to run, but failed to cross the threshold of 100,000 signatures required to run in the election:

Bolesław Tejkowski (Chairman of the Polish National Community [pl])

Campaign

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 conservative 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]

Opinion polls

Poll publisher	Date of polling	Kwaśniewski SdRP	Wałęsa IN	Kuroń UW	Olszewski RdR	Pawlak PSL	Zieliński [pl] UP	Gronkiewicz-Waltz IN	Others and Undecideds
Poll publisher	Date of polling								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)^[5]
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: Pienkos,^[6] Dudek^[2]

Results

Kwaśniewski won with 52% of the vote in the run-off. 65% of voters voted in the first round and 68% in the second round.


Candidate		Party	First round		Second round
Candidate		Party	Votes	%	Votes	%
	Aleksander Kwaśniewski	Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland^[7]	6,275,670	35.11	9,704,439	51.72
	Lech Wałęsa	Independent	5,917,328	33.11	9,058,176	48.28
	Jacek Kuroń	Freedom Union	1,646,946	9.22
	Jan Olszewski	Movement for the Republic	1,225,453	6.86
	Waldemar Pawlak	Polish People's Party	770,419	4.31
	Tadeusz Zieliński [pl]	Labor Union	631,432	3.53
	Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz	Independent	492,628	2.76
	Janusz Korwin-Mikke	Real Politics Union	428,969	2.40
	Andrzej Lepper	Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland	235,797	1.32
	Jan Pietrzak	Independent	201,033	1.12
	Tadeusz Koźluk [pl]	Independent	27,259	0.15
	Kazimierz Piotrowicz [pl]	Independent	12,591	0.07
	Leszek Bubel [pl]	Independent	6,825	0.04
Total			17,872,350	100.00	18,762,615	100.00

Valid votes			17,872,350	98.18	18,762,615	98.00
Invalid/blank votes			330,868	1.82	383,881	2.00
Total votes			18,203,218	100.00	19,146,496	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			28,136,332	64.70	28,062,409	68.23
Source: Nohlen & Stöver

Aftermath

Lech Wałęsa contested the election results, but they were reaffirmed by the Supreme Court.^[2]

References

^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ 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.
^ Woliński, Przemysław. Transformacja Sojuszu Lewicy Demokratycznej – od koalicji wyborczej do partii politycznej.
^ ^a ^b Paszkiewicz, Krystyna (2004). Partie i koalicje polityczne III Rzeczypospolitej. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. ISBN 83-229-2493-3.
^ "Dz.U. 1995 nr 103 poz. 509".
^ Pienkos, Donald (1997-11-04). THE 1995 POLISH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: A STEP TOWARD NORMALCY. p. 407 / 13.
^ Szewczak, Natalia (2020-07-13). "75 kandydatów na prezydenta w ciągu 30 lat. Czy pamiętasz choć połowę tych nazwisk?". Retrieved 2024-04-20.

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

Notes

^ Although Wałęsa was officially an independent, his campaign was endorsed and staffed by BBWR and SND [pl].

[NS-2] Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7

[Dudek-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ 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.

[Woliński-4] Woliński, Przemysław. Transformacja Sojuszu Lewicy Demokratycznej – od koalicji wyborczej do partii politycznej.

[PiK-5] Paszkiewicz, Krystyna (2004). Partie i koalicje polityczne III Rzeczypospolitej. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. ISBN 83-229-2493-3.

[6] "Dz.U. 1995 nr 103 poz. 509".

[Pienkos-7] Pienkos, Donald (1997-11-04). THE 1995 POLISH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: A STEP TOWARD NORMALCY. p. 407 / 13.

[bi-8] 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].

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v t e Polish presidential elections
Indirect elections	1922 1926 1933 1947 1989
Direct elections	1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025

v t e Elections and referendums in Poland
Presidential elections	1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025
Parliamentary elections	1919 1922 1928 1930 1935 1938 1947 1952 1957 1961 1965 1969 1972 1976 1980 1985 1989 1991 1993 1997 2001 2005 2007 2011 2015 2019 2023 Next
Local elections	1916–17 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1929 1933–34 1936 1938–39 1954 1958 1961 1965 1969 1973 1976 1980 1984 1988 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2024
European elections	2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Referendums	1946 1987 1996 1997 2003 2015 2023
Silesian Sejm elections	1922 1930 (May) 1930 (Nov) 1935
See also: Elections in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

v t e History of the Third Polish Republic
1990–1995 Wałęsa Presidency	Round Table Agreement 1990 presidential election 1991 parliamentary election 1993 parliamentary election
1995–2005 Kwaśniewski Presidency	1995 presidential election 1996 enfranchisement and privatisation referendums 1997 Constitution 1997 parliamentary election 2000 presidential election 2001 parliamentary election Rywin affair 2003 invasion of Iraq EU membership referendum Accession to the EU
2005–2010 Kaczyński Presidency	2005 parliamentary election 2005 presidential election 2007 parliamentary election Smolensk air disaster
2010–2015 Komorowski Presidency	2010 presidential election 2011 parliamentary election Euro 2012 2015 presidential election
2015-present Duda Presidency	2015 parliamentary election 2015 referendum 2015 constitutional crisis 2019 parliamentary election COVID-19 pandemic in Poland 2020 presidential election 2021 border crisis 2023 parliamentary election