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

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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 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 ultraconservative 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]

Candidates

• 
  Former Member of the Sejm Leszek Bubel (Independent), 38
• 
  Chairman of the National Bank Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (Independent), 43
• 
  Former Member of the Sejm Janusz Korwin-Mikke (Real Politics Union), 53
• 
  Former Minister of Labor and Social Policy Jacek Kuroń (Freedom Union), 61
• 
  Leader of Social Democracy Aleksander Kwaśniewski (Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland), 40
• 
  Agriculturer Andrzej Lepper (Self-Defense), 41
• 
  Former Prime Minister Jan Olszewski (Movement for the Republic), 65
• 
  Former Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak (Polish People's Party), 36
• 
  Comedian Jan Pietrzak (Independent), 58
• 
  Incumbent President Lech Wałęsa (Independent), 52
• 
  Senator Tadeusz Zieliński (Labour Union), 69

• Jurist Tadeusz Koźluk (Independent), 65
• Mechanic Kazimierz Piotrowicz (Independent), 51

Withdrawn

• 
  Former Chairman of the Supreme Audit Office Lech Kaczyński (Centre Agreement), 46
• 
  Former Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council Marek Markiewicz (The Republicans), 43
• 
  Journalist Leszek Moczulski (KPN), 65

• Businessman Bogdan Pawłowski (Independent), 50

Opinion polls

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.