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 →
Turnout	64.70% (first round) 4.07pp 68.23% (second round) 14.83pp
Nominee Aleksander Kwaśniewski Lech Wałęsa Party SdRP Independent[a] Popular vote 9,704,439 9,058,176 Percentage 51.72% 48.28%
First round results by voivodeship Second round results by voivodeship
President before election Lech Wałęsa Independent Elected President Aleksander Kwaśniewski SdRP

Background

Wałęsa's inauguration

Lech Wałęsa was elected and sworn in as President in December 1990, succeeding Wojciech Jaruzelski and leading to the ultimate end of communist rule in Poland. Soon after his inauguration, Wałęsa's presently primary rival Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki resigned and was followed by Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, a liberal and economist relatively loyal to Wałęsa. Regardless of the cabinet changes, Bielecki's time as Prime Minister would largely follow the course set by his predecessor.^[2]

1991 parliamentary election

The 1991 Polish parliamentary election saw the Democratic Union (UD) become the largest party, later supplanted by the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) after Aleksander Hall's Conservatives split off from UD. After the downfall of Jan Olszewski's cabinet, and Hanna Suchocka's cabinet which succeeded it, new elections were called.

1993 parliamentary election

The 1993 Polish parliamentary election saw SLD become the largest party, winning a plurality of 171 (37.2%) of seats while receiving only 20.4% of votes. SLD governed in a coalition with the Polish People's Party.

Despite peaking at 70% in approval near the start of his term, by March 1995, Wałęsa's presidential approval rating reached 25%, with 64% disapproval.^[3]

Candidate selection

Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland

Social Democracy
Aleksander Kwaśniewski
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][4] A poll conducted in December 1994 suggested 71% of potential SLD voters supported Kwaśniewski as the party's candidate, 7% supported Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz and 16% supported Oleksy.^[5]

Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms

Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms
Lech Wałęsa
President of Poland (1990-1995)

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

Freedom Union

Freedom Union
Jacek Kuroń
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] A poll conducted in December 1994 suggested 53% of potential UW voters supported Kuroń as the party's candidate, 15% supported Leszek Balcerowicz and 25% supported Suchocka.^[5]

Movement for the Republic

Movement for the Republic
Jan Olszewski
Prime Minister of Poland (1991-1992)

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

Polish People's Party

Polish People's Party
Waldemar Pawlak
Member of the Sejm (1989-1993)

Pawlak was selected as the party's candidate.^[2] A poll conducted in December 1994 suggested 68% of potential PSL voters supported Pawlak as the party's candidate, 1% supported Janusz Piechociński and 9% supported Józef Zych.^[5]

Convent of St. Catherine

Convent of Saint Catherine
Hanna Gronkiewcz-Waltz
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.^[6] 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.^[6][2]

Other candidates

Labour Union	Real Politics Union	Samoobrona	Independent	Independent	Independent	Independent
Tadeusz Zieliński	Janusz Korwin-Mikke	Andrzej Lepper	Jan Pietrzak	Tadeusz Koźluk	Kazimierz Piotrowicz	Leszek Bubel
Ombudsman in Poland (1992-1996)	Member of the Sejm (1991-1993)	Agriculturist	Satirist	Lawyer	Entrepreneur	Member of the Sejm (1991-1993)

Withdrawn candidates

Centre Agreement	Republicans Party	Confederation of Independent Poland	Independent
Lech Kaczyński	Marek Markiewicz	Leszek Moczulski	Bogdan Pawłowski
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
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)[7]
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,[8] Dudek[2]

Results

Winners of the second round by powiats (1999 borders)

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
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Aleksander Kwaśniewski	Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland[9]	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]

Notes

1. The President of Poland traditionally resigns from party membership after taking office. Although Wałęsa was officially an independent, his campaign was endorsed and funded by the Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms and National Democratic Party [pl].

References

1. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1491 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. 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. "OCENA DZIAŁALNOŚCI PREZYDENTA W LATACH 1989-1995" (PDF).
4. Woliński, Przemysław. Transformacja Sojuszu Lewicy Demokratycznej – od koalicji wyborczej do partii politycznej.
5. "WYBORY PREZYDENCKIE - PREFERENCJE W GRUDNIU '94" (PDF).
6. Paszkiewicz, Krystyna (2004). Partie i koalicje polityczne III Rzeczypospolitej. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego. ISBN 83-229-2493-3.
7. "Dz.U. 1995 nr 103 poz. 509".
8. Pienkos, Donald (1997-11-04). THE 1995 POLISH PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION: A STEP TOWARD NORMALCY. p. 407 / 13.
9. 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