2005 Polish presidential election

Polish presidential election, 2005

9 October 2005 (first round) 23 October 2005 (second round)
Turnout	49.6% (first round) 50.99% (second round)
Nominee Lech Kaczyński Donald Tusk Party PiS PO Popular vote 8,257,468 7,022,319 Percentage 54.0% 46.0%
President before election Aleksander Kwaśniewski independent (politician) President Lech Kaczyński PiS

The 2005 Presidential elections were held in Poland on October 9 and October 23, 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.

Background

Two center-right candidates, Donald Tusk, chairman of the Civic Platform party (PO), and Lech Kaczyński, leader of the Law and Justice party (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 is considered somewhat more socially and economically liberal, favoring more rapid European integration and a free-market economy. Kaczyński is more socially conservative, in the tradition of post-Communist Poland's first President, Lech Wałęsa, and is skeptical of the European Union. 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 have 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 current 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.

Candidates

• 
  Activist Henryka Bochniarz
• 
  Mayor of Warsaw Lech Kaczyński
• 
  Member of Sejm Andrzej Lepper
• 
  Chairman of Unia Polityki Realnej Janusz Korwin-Mikke
• 
  Vice Marshal of the Sejm Donald Tusk
• 
  Former Presidential candidate Stanisław Tymiński

• Activist Leszek Bubel
• Activist Liwiusz Ilasz
• Activist Jan Pyszko

Withdrawn

• Zbigniew Religa - senator, prominent cardiac surgeon, candidate of Centre Party.
• Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz - former Prime Minister, candidate of Democratic Left Alliance.
• Maciej Giertych - member of European Parliament, candidate of League of Polish Families.

Dead

• Daniel Podrzycki - socialist, candidate of Polish Labour Party and Communist Party of Poland.

Results

Voters turnout in the first round was quite low with only 49.6 percent of all eligible voters casting their votes.

Results of the first round

External links

• Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker
• "Presidential Calculator", Rzeczpospolita
• Official results
• Reference files on the Poland's presidential candidates.