Elections in Poland
Encyclopedia
Elections in Poland gives information on election
and election results in Poland
. Poland has a multi-party political system
. Poland elects on national level a head of state
- the president
- and a legislature
. There are also various local elections
, referendums and elections to the European Parliament
.
Poland has a long history of elections dating several centuries, including the elections to Sejm from 1182 and the elective monarchy from 1569 to 1795. There were also elections in the Second Polish Republic
(1918–1939), and the People's Republic of Poland
, although most of the latter are considered to have been rigged.
Since 1991, Polish elections operate according to a typical parliamentary system
.
Poland has a multi-party political system
, with numerous parties
in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties
must work with each other to form coalition government
s.
Poland elects on national level a head of state
- the president
- and a legislature
. The president is elected for a five year term by the people. The National Assembly
has two chambers
. The parliament
(Sejm
) has 460 members, elected for a four year term by party lists
in multi-seat constituencies with a 5% threshold for single parties and 8% threshold for coalitions, (requirement waived for national minorities). The Senate
(Senat) has 100 members elected for a four year term via the first past-the-post system, with 100 single member constituencies. Prior to the 2011 parliamentary elections, elections to the Senate were conducted through plurality bloc voting in 40 multi-seat constituencies. Since 1991 elections are supervised by National Electoral Commission (Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza), whose administrative division
is called the National Electoral Office (Krajowe Biuro Wyborcze).
: the Polish Round Table Agreement
produced a partly open parliamentary elections. The June election produced a Sejm
(lower house), in which one-third of the seats went to communists and one-third went to the two parties which had hitherto been their coalition partners. The remaining one-third of the seats in the Sejm and all those in the Senate
were freely contested; the majority of these were by candidates supported by Solidarity
. Jaruzelski was elected by the Sejm as President of Poland.
The May 1990 local elections were entirely free. Candidates supported by Solidarity's Citizens' Committees won most of the elections they contested, although voter turnout was only a little over 40%. The cabinet was reshuffled in July 1990; the national defence and interior affairs ministers (hold-overs from the previous communist government) were among those replaced.
became the first popularly elected President of Poland.
were held in 1991. More than 100 parties participated, representing the full spectrum of political views. No single party received more than 13% of the total vote.
, and the first parliament to serve a full term. The Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) received the largest share of votes.
After the election, the SLD and PSL
formed a governing coalition. Waldemar Pawlak
, leader of the junior partner PSL, became Prime Minister, later replaced by SLD's leader Józef Oleksy
.
. SLD leader Aleksander Kwaśniewski
defeated Wałęsa by a narrow margin—51.7% to 48.3%.
two parties with roots in the Solidarity movement — Solidarity Electoral Action
(AWS) and the Freedom Union
(UW) — won 261 of the 460 seats in the Sejm and formed a coalition government. Jerzy Buzek
of the AWS became Prime Minister. The AWS and the Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) held the majority of the seats in the Sejm. Marian Krzaklewski
was the leader of the AWS, and Leszek Miller
led the SLD. In June 2000, UW withdrew from the governing collation, leaving AWS at the helm of a minority government.
of 2000, Aleksander Kwaśniewski
, the incumbent former leader of the post-communist SLD, was re-elected in the first round of voting, with 53.9% of the popular vote. Second place, with only 17.3%, went to Andrzej Olechowski
. It is thought that the opposition campaign was hindered by their inability to put forward a charismatic (or even a single major) candidate, as well as falling support for the centre-right AWS government. This was related to internal friction in the ruling parliamentary coalition.
and the changed administrative divisions of 1999 required a revision of the electoral system, which was passed in April 2001. The most important changes included:
The September 2001 parliamentary elections
saw the SLD triumph on the back of voter dissolusionment with the AWS government and internal bickering within that bloc. So much so that this former ruling party did not enter parliament, falling below the 8% threshold for coalitions (they had failed to form a formal political party, which has only a 5% threshold, and formally remained a "coalition" of parties).
The SLD went on to form a coalition with the agrarian PSL
and leftist UP, with Leszek Miller
as Prime Minister.
was expected to produce a coalition of two centre-right parties, Law and Justice
(Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) and Civic Platform
(Platforma Obywatelska, PO). PiS eventually gained 27% of votes cast and became the largest party in the sejm ahead of PO on 24%. The out-going ruling party, the left-wing Democratic Left Alliance
(Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD), achieved just 11%. Presidential elections in October
followed a similar script. The early favourite, Donald Tusk
, leader of the PO, saw his opinion poll lead slip away and was beaten 54% to 46% in the second round by the PiS candidate Lech Kaczyński
(one of the twins, founders of the party). Both elections were blighted by low turn-outs—only 51% in the second and deciding round of the presidential election, and just over 40% in the parliamentary election. The suggested cause of the low turnout is popular disillusionment with politicians.
, including Lech Kaczyński
, acting President of Poland.
At the Polish presidential election in 2010, Donald Tusk
decided not to present his candidature, considered easily winning over PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński. At PO primary election
s, Bronisław Komorowski defeated the Oxford-educated, PiS turncoat Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. At the polls, Komorowski defeated Jarosław Kaczyński, ensuring a PO dominance on all Polish political landscape.
In November 2010, local elections granted about 31 percent of the votes and PiS at 23 percent, an increase for the former and a drop for the latter compared to the 2006 elections.
PO succeeded in winning four consecutive elections (a record in post-communist Poland), and Donald Tusk
is left as the kingmaker. PO's dominance is also a reflection of right-wing weakness and divisions, with PiS suffering a splinter in Autumn 2010.
–Polish People's Party government. All seats of both houses were up for re-election.
Civic Platform (PO), led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk
, was aiming for re-election: a feat that hadn't been achieved since Poland became a democracy. The Polish People's Party (PSL) was previously the smaller partner to the Civic Platform in the governing coalition, and had said that it wished to continue this relationship after the election.
in 1182. From the Sejm of 1493 Polish kings had to call regular Sejms and sejmik
s (regional elections) every two years. From 1573 the system of royal elections required the election of kings during the Sejm.
The first modern and free elections
were held in 1919, two months after Poland regained its independence
in 1918. After the May Coup there were questions how free are the Polish elections, specially the elections of 1930 are often called non-free. After the Second World War, Poland became controlled by the communists, who rigged the elections of 1947
to ensure they controlled the entire Polish government. Although there were regular elections in Poland from that time, no elections until the groundbreaking elections of 1989
, marking the fall of communism, were free. The elections of 1989, which guaranteed the Polish communist party and its allies a majority of lower house seats, but allowed opposition parties to gain representation, is considered to be a semi-free election. All subsequent elections, beginning with the 1991 election are considered fair and free.
Famous Sejms included:
, last of the Jagiellonian dynasty, and following a brief period of interregnum
, the entire nobility
(szlachta
) of the Commonwealth (10% of the population) could take part in the elections of the monarchs
. Last elected king was Stanisław August Poniatowski in 1764. He abdicated
in 1795 after the partitions of Poland
ended the existence of sovereign state of Poland for 123 years.
.
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
and election results in Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. Poland has a multi-party political system
Political system
A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...
. Poland elects on national level a head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
- the president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
- and a legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
. There are also various local elections
Local elections in Poland
- 2002 :SLD-UP - 6644 PSL - 4986 Samoobrona - 1530 LPR - 1065...
, referendums and elections to the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
.
Poland has a long history of elections dating several centuries, including the elections to Sejm from 1182 and the elective monarchy from 1569 to 1795. There were also elections in the Second Polish Republic
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
(1918–1939), and the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
, although most of the latter are considered to have been rigged.
Modern Poland
Parliamentary system
A parliamentary system is a system of government in which the ministers of the executive branch get their democratic legitimacy from the legislature and are accountable to that body, such that the executive and legislative branches are intertwined....
.
Poland has a multi-party political system
Political system
A political system is a system of politics and government. It is usually compared to the legal system, economic system, cultural system, and other social systems...
, with numerous parties
Political Parties
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...
in which no one party often has a chance of gaining power alone, and parties
Political Parties
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...
must work with each other to form coalition government
Coalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
s.
Poland elects on national level a head of state
Head of State
A head of state is the individual that serves as the chief public representative of a monarchy, republic, federation, commonwealth or other kind of state. His or her role generally includes legitimizing the state and exercising the political powers, functions, and duties granted to the head of...
- the president
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
- and a legislature
Legislature
A legislature is a kind of deliberative assembly with the power to pass, amend, and repeal laws. The law created by a legislature is called legislation or statutory law. In addition to enacting laws, legislatures usually have exclusive authority to raise or lower taxes and adopt the budget and...
. The president is elected for a five year term by the people. The National Assembly
National Assembly of Poland
The National Assembly is the name of both chambers of the Polish parliament, the Sejm and the Senate, when sitting in joint session...
has two chambers
Bicameralism
In the government, bicameralism is the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a legislature which consists of two chambers or houses....
. The parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
(Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
) has 460 members, elected for a four year term by party lists
Party-list proportional representation
Party-list proportional representation systems are a family of voting systems emphasizing proportional representation in elections in which multiple candidates are elected...
in multi-seat constituencies with a 5% threshold for single parties and 8% threshold for coalitions, (requirement waived for national minorities). The Senate
Senate of Poland
The Senate is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the 'Sejm'. The history of the Polish Senate is rich in tradition and stretches back over 500 years, it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe and existed without hiatus until the...
(Senat) has 100 members elected for a four year term via the first past-the-post system, with 100 single member constituencies. Prior to the 2011 parliamentary elections, elections to the Senate were conducted through plurality bloc voting in 40 multi-seat constituencies. Since 1991 elections are supervised by National Electoral Commission (Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza), whose administrative division
Public administration
Public Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal.....
is called the National Electoral Office (Krajowe Biuro Wyborcze).
1989 Parliamentary Elections
1989 Parliamentary ElectionsContract Sejm
Contract Sejm is a term commonly applied to the Polish Parliament elected in the Polish parliamentary elections of 1989. The contract refers to an agreement reached by the Communist Party and the Solidarity movement during the Polish Round Table Agreement. The final agreement was signed on April...
: the Polish Round Table Agreement
Polish Round Table Agreement
The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from February 6 to April 4, 1989. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest.-History:...
produced a partly open parliamentary elections. The June election produced a Sejm
Sejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
(lower house), in which one-third of the seats went to communists and one-third went to the two parties which had hitherto been their coalition partners. The remaining one-third of the seats in the Sejm and all those in the Senate
Senate of Poland
The Senate is the upper house of the Polish parliament, the lower house being the 'Sejm'. The history of the Polish Senate is rich in tradition and stretches back over 500 years, it was one of the first constituent bodies of a bicameral parliament in Europe and existed without hiatus until the...
were freely contested; the majority of these were by candidates supported by Solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity is a Polish trade union federation that emerged on August 31, 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa. It was the first non-communist party-controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. Solidarity reached 9.5 million members before its September 1981 congress...
. Jaruzelski was elected by the Sejm as President of Poland.
The May 1990 local elections were entirely free. Candidates supported by Solidarity's Citizens' Committees won most of the elections they contested, although voter turnout was only a little over 40%. The cabinet was reshuffled in July 1990; the national defence and interior affairs ministers (hold-overs from the previous communist government) were among those replaced.
1990 Presidential Elections
In October 1990, the constitution was amended to curtail the term of President Jaruzelski. In December, Lech WałęsaLech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
became the first popularly elected President of Poland.
1991 Parliamentary Elections
Poland's first free parliamentary electionsPolish parliamentary election, 1991
The Polish parliamentary election in 1991 to the Sejm and the Senate of Poland was held on October 27. In the Sejm elections, 27,517,280 citizens were eligible to vote, 11,887,949 of them cast their votes, 11,218,602 of those were counted as valid. In the Senate elections, 43.2% of citizens cast...
were held in 1991. More than 100 parties participated, representing the full spectrum of political views. No single party received more than 13% of the total vote.
1993 Parliamentary Elections
After a rough start, 1993 saw the second group of electionsPolish parliamentary election, 1993
Polish parliamentary election in 1993 to Sejm and Senate of Poland was held on the 19 September. In Sejm elections, 52.13% of citizens cast their votes, and 95.7% of those were counted as valid. In Senate elections, 52.1% of citizens cast their votes, and 97.07% were valid...
, and the first parliament to serve a full term. The Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) received the largest share of votes.
After the election, the SLD and PSL
Polish Peasant Party
The Polish People's Party , is a centrist, agrarian, and Christian democratic political party in Poland. It currently has 31 members of the Sejm, one member of the Senate, and three Members of the European Parliament. It is the junior partner in a coalition with Civic Platform.The party was...
formed a governing coalition. Waldemar Pawlak
Waldemar Pawlak
Waldemar Pawlak is a Polish politician. He twice served as Prime Minister of Poland, briefly in 1992 and again from 1993 to 1995. Since November 2007, he has been Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy. Pawlak is the only person who held the office of Prime Minister twice during the...
, leader of the junior partner PSL, became Prime Minister, later replaced by SLD's leader Józef Oleksy
Józef Oleksy
Józef Oleksy is a post-communist Polish politician, former chairman of Democratic Left Alliance ....
.
1995 Presidential Elections
In November 1995, Poland held its second post-war free presidential electionsPolish presidential election, 1995
1995 Presidential elections were held in Poland on Sunday November 5 , and Sunday November 19 . Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Lech Wałęsa passed to the second round...
. SLD leader Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Aleksander Kwasniewski
Aleksander Kwaśniewski is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s...
defeated Wałęsa by a narrow margin—51.7% to 48.3%.
1997 Parliamentary Elections
In 1997 parliamentary electionsPolish parliamentary election, 1997
The Polish parliamentary election in 1997 to the Sejm and Senate of Poland was held on the 21 September. In the Sejm elections, 47.93% of citizens cast their votes, 96.12% of which were counted as valid...
two parties with roots in the Solidarity movement — Solidarity Electoral Action
Solidarity Electoral Action
Solidarity Electoral Action was a political party coalition in Poland. Since 1997 its official name has been Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność Prawicy or Solidarity Electoral Action of the Right...
(AWS) and the Freedom Union
Freedom Union (Poland)
The Freedom Union was a liberal democratic party in Poland. It was founded on March 20, 1994 out of the merger of the Democratic Union and the Liberal Democratic Congress . Both of these parties had roots in the Solidarity trade union movement. It represented European democratic and liberal...
(UW) — won 261 of the 460 seats in the Sejm and formed a coalition government. Jerzy Buzek
Jerzy Buzek
Jerzy Karol Buzek is a Polish engineer, academic lecturer and politician who was the ninth post-Cold War Prime Minister of Poland from 1997 to 2001...
of the AWS became Prime Minister. The AWS and the Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) held the majority of the seats in the Sejm. Marian Krzaklewski
Marian Krzaklewski
Marian Krzaklewski is a Polish politician. A member of Solidarity since the 1980s, he was one of the most known and influential Polish politicians in the late 1990s, when he created the Solidarity Electoral Action...
was the leader of the AWS, and Leszek Miller
Leszek Miller
Leszek Cezary Miller is a Polish central-left-wing politician, leader of the Democratic Left Alliance , Prime Minister of the government of the Republic of Poland in 2001-2004.-Childhood and youth:...
led the SLD. In June 2000, UW withdrew from the governing collation, leaving AWS at the helm of a minority government.
2000 Presidential election
In the presidential electionPolish presidential election, 2000
The 2000 Polish presidential election took place in Poland on 8 October 2000. Incumbent President Aleksander Kwaśniewski was easily re-elected in the first round after winning more than 50% of the votes.-Background:...
of 2000, Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Aleksander Kwasniewski
Aleksander Kwaśniewski is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s...
, the incumbent former leader of the post-communist SLD, was re-elected in the first round of voting, with 53.9% of the popular vote. Second place, with only 17.3%, went to Andrzej Olechowski
Andrzej Olechowski
Andrzej Marian Olechowski is a Polish politician. He was one of the co-founders of conservative liberal party Civic Platform in 2001 with Maciej Płażyński and Donald Tusk...
. It is thought that the opposition campaign was hindered by their inability to put forward a charismatic (or even a single major) candidate, as well as falling support for the centre-right AWS government. This was related to internal friction in the ruling parliamentary coalition.
2001 Parliamentary elections
The 1997 ConstitutionConstitution of Poland
The current Constitution of Poland was adopted on 2 April 1997. Formally known as the Constitution of the Republic of Poland , it replaced the temporary amendments put into place in 1992 designed to reverse the effects of Communism, establishing the nation as "a democratic state ruled by law and...
and the changed administrative divisions of 1999 required a revision of the electoral system, which was passed in April 2001. The most important changes included:
- the final liquidation of the party list (previously, some of the members of parliament were elected from a party list, based on nationwide voter support, rather than from local constituencies),
- modification of the method of allocating seats to the Sainte-Laguë methodSainte-Laguë methodThe Sainte-Laguë method is one way of allocating seats approximately proportional to the number of votes of a party to a party list used in many voting systems. It is named after the French mathematician André Sainte-Laguë. The Sainte-Laguë method is quite similar to the D'Hondt method, but uses...
, which gave less premium to large parties. The latter change was reverted back to the d'Hondt methodD'Hondt methodThe d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...
in 2002.
The September 2001 parliamentary elections
Polish parliamentary election, 2001
Polish parliamentary election in 2001 to Sejm and Senate of Poland were held on the 23rd September. In Sejm elections, 46.29% of citizens cast their votes, 96.01% of those were counted as valid...
saw the SLD triumph on the back of voter dissolusionment with the AWS government and internal bickering within that bloc. So much so that this former ruling party did not enter parliament, falling below the 8% threshold for coalitions (they had failed to form a formal political party, which has only a 5% threshold, and formally remained a "coalition" of parties).
The SLD went on to form a coalition with the agrarian PSL
Polish Peasant Party
The Polish People's Party , is a centrist, agrarian, and Christian democratic political party in Poland. It currently has 31 members of the Sejm, one member of the Senate, and three Members of the European Parliament. It is the junior partner in a coalition with Civic Platform.The party was...
and leftist UP, with Leszek Miller
Leszek Miller
Leszek Cezary Miller is a Polish central-left-wing politician, leader of the Democratic Left Alliance , Prime Minister of the government of the Republic of Poland in 2001-2004.-Childhood and youth:...
as Prime Minister.
2005 Presidential and Parliament elections
In the autumn of 2005 Poles voted in both parliamentary and presidential elections. September's parliamentary pollPolish parliamentary election, 2005
Parliamentary elections for both houses of the Parliament of Poland were held on September 25, 2005. Thirty million voters were eligible to vote for all 460 members of the lower house, the Assembly of the Republic of Poland , and all 100 members of the upper house, the Senate of the Republic of...
was expected to produce a coalition of two centre-right parties, Law and Justice
Law and Justice
Law and Justice , abbreviated to PiS, is a right-wing, conservative political party in Poland. With 147 seats in the Sejm and 38 in the Senate, it is the second-largest party in the Polish parliament....
(Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) and Civic Platform
Civic Platform
Civic Platform , abbreviated to PO, is a centre-right, liberal conservative political party in Poland. It has been the major coalition partner in Poland's government since the 2007 general election, with party leader Donald Tusk as Prime Minister of Poland and Bronisław Komorowski as President...
(Platforma Obywatelska, PO). PiS eventually gained 27% of votes cast and became the largest party in the sejm ahead of PO on 24%. The out-going ruling party, the left-wing Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance is a social-democratic political party in Poland. Formed in 1991 as a coalition of centre-left parties, it was formally established as a single party on 15 April 1999. It is currently the third largest opposition party in Poland....
(Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD), achieved just 11%. Presidential elections in October
Polish presidential election, 2005
-External links:**] ]**...
followed a similar script. The early favourite, Donald Tusk
Donald Tusk
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who has been Prime Minister of Poland since 2007. He was a co-founder and is chairman of the Civic Platform party....
, leader of the PO, saw his opinion poll lead slip away and was beaten 54% to 46% in the second round by the PiS candidate Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
(one of the twins, founders of the party). Both elections were blighted by low turn-outs—only 51% in the second and deciding round of the presidential election, and just over 40% in the parliamentary election. The suggested cause of the low turnout is popular disillusionment with politicians.
2007 Parliamentary election
The October parliamentary elections saw a stunning victory for the Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition party, which gained more than 41% of the popular vote. PiS's vote increased, from 2005, but insufficiently to gain reelection, whilst both Samoobrona and LPR were wiped out, losing all representation, each having gained only a little over 1% of the vote. PO proceeded to form a majority governing coalition with the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL), with PO leader, Donald Tusk, taking over the prime ministerial office in November, 2007.2010 Presidential election
On 10 April 2010, several members of the political elite were killed in the Smolensk air crash2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash
The 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash occurred on 10 April 2010, when a Tupolev Tu-154M aircraft of the Polish Air Force crashed near the city of Smolensk, Russia, killing all 96 people on board...
, including Lech Kaczyński
Lech Kaczynski
Lech Aleksander Kaczyński was Polish lawyer and politician who served as the President of Poland from 2005 until 2010 and as Mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 22 December 2005. Before he became a president, he was also a member of the party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość...
, acting President of Poland.
At the Polish presidential election in 2010, Donald Tusk
Donald Tusk
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who has been Prime Minister of Poland since 2007. He was a co-founder and is chairman of the Civic Platform party....
decided not to present his candidature, considered easily winning over PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński. At PO primary election
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
s, Bronisław Komorowski defeated the Oxford-educated, PiS turncoat Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. At the polls, Komorowski defeated Jarosław Kaczyński, ensuring a PO dominance on all Polish political landscape.
In November 2010, local elections granted about 31 percent of the votes and PiS at 23 percent, an increase for the former and a drop for the latter compared to the 2006 elections.
PO succeeded in winning four consecutive elections (a record in post-communist Poland), and Donald Tusk
Donald Tusk
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who has been Prime Minister of Poland since 2007. He was a co-founder and is chairman of the Civic Platform party....
is left as the kingmaker. PO's dominance is also a reflection of right-wing weakness and divisions, with PiS suffering a splinter in Autumn 2010.
2011 Parliamentary election
The parliamentary election to both the Sejm and the Senate was held on 9 October 2011. The previous election, in 2007, resulted in a Civic PlatformCivic Platform
Civic Platform , abbreviated to PO, is a centre-right, liberal conservative political party in Poland. It has been the major coalition partner in Poland's government since the 2007 general election, with party leader Donald Tusk as Prime Minister of Poland and Bronisław Komorowski as President...
–Polish People's Party government. All seats of both houses were up for re-election.
Civic Platform (PO), led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk
Donald Tusk
Donald Franciszek Tusk is a Polish politician who has been Prime Minister of Poland since 2007. He was a co-founder and is chairman of the Civic Platform party....
, was aiming for re-election: a feat that hadn't been achieved since Poland became a democracy. The Polish People's Party (PSL) was previously the smaller partner to the Civic Platform in the governing coalition, and had said that it wished to continue this relationship after the election.
History
Poland has a long history of elections dating many centuries from the first SejmSejm
The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. The Sejm is made up of 460 deputies, or Poseł in Polish . It is elected by universal ballot and is presided over by a speaker called the Marshal of the Sejm ....
in 1182. From the Sejm of 1493 Polish kings had to call regular Sejms and sejmik
Sejmik
A sejmik was a regional assembly in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and earlier in the Kingdom of Poland. Sejmiks existed until the end of the Commonwealth in 1795 following the partitions of the Commonwealth...
s (regional elections) every two years. From 1573 the system of royal elections required the election of kings during the Sejm.
The first modern and free elections
Polish legislative election, 1919
The Polish legislative election, 1919 took place on 26 January and were the first election in the Second Polish Republic. The elections, based on universal suffrage and proportional representation, produced a parliament balanced between Right, Left and Center...
were held in 1919, two months after Poland regained its independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
in 1918. After the May Coup there were questions how free are the Polish elections, specially the elections of 1930 are often called non-free. After the Second World War, Poland became controlled by the communists, who rigged the elections of 1947
Polish legislative election, 1947
The Polish legislative election of 1947 was held on January 19, 1947 in the People's Republic of Poland. The anti-communist opposition candidates and activists were persecuted and the eventual results were falsified...
to ensure they controlled the entire Polish government. Although there were regular elections in Poland from that time, no elections until the groundbreaking elections of 1989
Polish legislative election, 1989
The Polish legislative election of 1989 was the tenth election to the Sejm, the parliament of the People's Republic of Poland, and eleventh in Communist Poland...
, marking the fall of communism, were free. The elections of 1989, which guaranteed the Polish communist party and its allies a majority of lower house seats, but allowed opposition parties to gain representation, is considered to be a semi-free election. All subsequent elections, beginning with the 1991 election are considered fair and free.
Sejm
The first Sejm was called in 1182. Since the Sejm of 1493, called by king John I Olbracht in 1493, Sejms were to be held every 2 years. There were also special Sejms when needed, for example the coronation sejms.Famous Sejms included:
- Sejm Niemy - the Silent Sejm of 1717 which marked the beginning of Russian control over Polish internal affairs;
- Repnin SejmRepnin SejmThe Repnin Sejm was a Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1767 and 1768 in Warsaw. This session followed the Sejms of 1764 to 1766, where the newly elected King of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, attempted with some successes to push through reforms to...
- the Sejm of 1767/1768, whose terms were dictated by the Russian ambassador RepninRepninRepnin , the name of an old Russian princely family of Rurikid stock. The family traces its name to Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Obolensky , nicknamed Repnya, i.e., "bad porridge"... - Great SejmGreat SejmThe Great Sejm, also known as the Four-Year Sejm was a Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that was held in Warsaw, beginning in 1788...
- or the Four-Years Sejm of 1798–1792, which voted for the May Constitution of Poland; - Grodno SejmGrodno SejmGrodno Sejm was the last Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Grodno Sejm, held in fall of 1793 in Grodno, Grand Duchy of Lithuania is infamous because its deputies, bribed or coerced by the Russian Empire, passed the act of Second Partition of Poland...
- last Sejm of the First Republic
Elective monarchy and officials
Since the death of Sigismund II AugustusSigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus I was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the only son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548...
, last of the Jagiellonian dynasty, and following a brief period of interregnum
Interregnum
An interregnum is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order...
, the entire nobility
Nobility
Nobility is a social class which possesses more acknowledged privileges or eminence than members of most other classes in a society, membership therein typically being hereditary. The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be...
(szlachta
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
) of the Commonwealth (10% of the population) could take part in the elections of the monarchs
Elective monarchy
An elective monarchy is a monarchy ruled by an elected rather than hereditary monarch. The manner of election, the nature of the candidacy and the electors vary from case to case...
. Last elected king was Stanisław August Poniatowski in 1764. He abdicated
Abdication
Abdication occurs when a monarch, such as a king or emperor, renounces his office.-Terminology:The word abdication comes derives from the Latin abdicatio. meaning to disown or renounce...
in 1795 after the partitions of Poland
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
ended the existence of sovereign state of Poland for 123 years.
Second Polish Republic (1918–1939)
It is disputed how free were elections held after 1926 were; in particular, the 1930 elections are often considered to have been non-free :pl:Wybory brzeskie. Polish presidents were elected by the Sejm and Senate (Zgromadzenie Narodowe), not in a popular vote. Before 1922, the Polish Chief of State was called Naczelnik PaństwaNaczelnik panstwa
Naczelnik Państwa was the title of Poland's head of state in the early years of the Second Polish Republic. This office was held only by Józef Piłsudski, from 1918 to 1922. Until 1919 it was called tymczasowy naczelnik państwa...
.
People's Republic of Poland (1945–1989)
Only the 1947 and 1989 elections can be considered as partially free. All others were controlled. There were no presidential elections during the rest of this period, with President Bolesław Bierut's nomination by the Sejm and the abolition of the office by the 1952 constitution.External links
- Adam Carr's Election Archive
- Parties and elections
- Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza - National Electoral Commission
- Warsaw Consolidates the Countries of Eastern and Central Europe
- Jan Rokita: The Triumph of the Politician - Intellectual
- Kaczynski Brothers: Movie Stars That Turned Politicians
- Elections 2005: Brief Information About the Participants
- The Elections to the Polish Parliament (Sejm) 1919 - 1947 (results)