2005 Polish presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Poland on 9 October and 13 October 2005. The outgoing President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, had served two five-year terms and was unable to stand for a third term. Lech Kaczyński defeated Donald Tusk to become President of Poland.

2005 Polish presidential election
9 October 2005 (first round)
23 October 2005 (second round)
Turnout49.6% (first round)
51.0% (second round)
 
Nominee Lech Kaczyński Donald Tusk
Party PiS PO
Popular vote 8,257,468 7,022,319
Percentage 54.0% 46.0%
Results of the second round
President before election

Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Independent

 President

Lech Kaczyński
PiS

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Background

Two center-right candidates, Donald Tusk, chairman of the Civic Platform (PO) and Deputy Marshal of the Sejm, and Lech Kaczyński, honorary chairman of Law and Justice (PiS) and mayor of Warsaw, led the poll in the first round, as was widely expected. As neither received 50 percent of the vote, a second-round was held on 23 October. In this round, Kaczyński defeated Tusk, polling 54.04 percent of the vote.

Although both leading candidates came from the center-right, and their two parties had planned to form a coalition government following the legislative elections on 25 September, there were important differences between Tusk and Kaczyński. Tusk wanted to enforce separation of church and state, favored rapid European integration and supported a free-market economy. Kaczyński was very socially conservative, a soft Eurosceptic, and supported state interventionism. Such differences led to the failure of PiS-PO coalition talks in late October.

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz, the candidate of the Alliance of the Democratic Left, which was the governing party before the legislative election withdrew from the race on September 14. At the time he withdrew he was third in the polls, still having the most chances to get to the second round (besides Kaczyński and Tusk).

Other candidates, who withdrew from the elections, but initially have signed to, were Zbigniew Religa and Maciej Giertych. Daniel Tomasz Podrzycki, who had also signed, died in an accident before the elections.

Ten people had registered themselves in election procedure, but failed to gather 100,000 support signatures: Arnold Buzdygan, Stanisław Ceberek, Gabriel Janowski, Jan Antoni Kiełb, Waldemar Janusz Kossakowski, Marian Romuald Rembelski, Zbigniew Roliński, Sławomir Salomon, Maria Szyszkowska, Bolesław Tejkowski.

The figure of Józef Tusk, grandfather of incumbent Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, was in the center of the "Wehrmacht affair" over his brief period of service after being drafted into the German army during the late stages of World War II, which was the biggest controversy of the election.[1][2][3]

Candidates
  • Physician Jan Pyszko (Polish League), 75

Withdrawn

Dead

Opinion polls
Polling Firm Date of polling Others/Undecided
Kaczyński
PiS		 Tusk
PO		 Lepper
SRP		 Borowski
SDPL		 Kalinowski
PSL		 Korwin-Mikke
UPR		 Bochniarz
PD		 Religa
Centrum		 Cimoszewicz
SLD		 Giertych
LPR
Election Results 9 October 2005 0.7 33.1 36.3 15.1 10.3 1.8 1.4 1.3 - - -
PGB 30 September 2005 0 31 35 17 11 2 1 1 - - 2
Rzeczpospolita 17 September 2005 2 29 51 7 7 2 - - 2
PBS 15 September 2005 2 22 49 9 8 3 2 2 - - 3
Polityka 13 September 2005 8 22 43 10 - 17
Ipsos 9 August 2005 2 24 24 12 5 3 2 0 7 19 2
OBOP 8 August 2005 4 21 23 9 5 2 7 26 3
PBS 8 August 2005 8 20 19 14 3 9 23 4
PGB 13 July 2005 4 22 11 15 6 3 1 9 23 6
OBOP 11 July 2005 4.3 19 12 11 2.4 1.9 12 35 2.4
CBOS 8 July 2005 4 20 9 12 5 3 13 31 3
Gazeta Wyborcza 6 July 2005 6 18 12 10 5 3 14 29 3
CBOS 10 June 2005 8 25 11 12 14 3 23 4
CBOS 17 May 2005 10 22 13 14 10 15 14 2
PBS 13 May 2005 19 27 14 9 16 15
PGB 2 May 2005 22 23 13 13 10 9 10
Pentor 25 April 2005 9 21 9 13 9 22 15 2
PBS 22 April 2005 6 26 11 11 12 16 14 4
PGB 20 April 2005 12 24 13 13 14 7 8 9

Results

Voters turnout in the first round was quite low with only 49.7 percent of all eligible voters casting their votes.

Results of the first round
CandidatePartyFirst roundSecond round
Votes%Votes%
Lech KaczyńskiLaw and Justice4,947,92733.108,257,46854.04
Donald TuskCivic Platform5,429,66636.337,022,31945.96
Andrzej LepperSelf-Defense of the Republic of Poland2,259,09415.11
Marek BorowskiSocial Democracy of Poland1,544,64210.33
Jarosław KalinowskiPolish People's Party269,3161.80
Janusz Korwin-MikkeReal Politics Union214,1161.43
Henryka BochniarzDemocratic Party188,5981.26
Liwiusz IlaszIndependent31,6910.21
Stanisław TymińskiAll-Polish Citizens Coalition23,5450.16
Leszek BubelPolish National Party18,8280.13
Jan PyszkoOrganization of the Polish Nation – Polish League10,3710.07
Adam SłomkaPolish Confederation-Freedom and Work8,8950.06
Total14,946,689100.0015,279,787100.00
Valid votes14,946,68999.3415,279,78798.99
Invalid/blank votes99,6610.66155,2331.01
Total votes15,046,350100.0015,435,020100.00
Registered voters/turnout30,260,02749.7230,279,20950.98
Source: PKW, PKW

References
  1. (in Polish) Barbara Szczepuła , Józef Tusk i inni, Dziennik Bałtycki, 2006-08-04
  2. "Europe | Profile: Donald Tusk". BBC News. 2007-10-22. Retrieved 2010-03-14.
  3. (in Polish) Raport o dziadku z Wehrmachtu, Wprost, 2006-08-17
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