Presidential elections were held in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

on 9 October and 23 October 2005. The outgoing

President of Poland The president of Poland ( pl, Prezydent RP), officially the president of the Republic of Poland ( pl, Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), is the head of state of Poland. Their rights and obligations are determined in the Constitution of Pola ...

Aleksander Kwaśniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He 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 Pol ...

, had served two five-year terms and was unable to stand for a third term.

Lech Kaczyński Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (; 18 June 194910 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010. Before his tenure as president, he pre ...

defeated

Donald Tusk Donald Franciszek Tusk ( , ; born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician who was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He served as the 14th Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and leader of the Civic ...

to become President of Poland.

Background

Two

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

candidates,

, chairman of the

Civic Platform Civic Platform ( pl, Platforma Obywatelska, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a political party in Poland. It is currently led by Donald Tusk. It ...

(PO) and Deputy Marshal of the Sejm, and

, honorary chairman of Law and Justice (PiS) and mayor of

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, 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 The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

, favored rapid European integration and supported a free-market economy. Kaczyński was very

socially conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institution ...

, a

soft Eurosceptic Euroscepticism, also spelled as Euroskepticism or EU-scepticism, is a political position involving criticism of the European Union (EU) and European integration. It ranges from those who oppose some EU institutions and policies, and seek refor ...

, and supported state interventionism. Such differences led to the failure of PiS-PO coalition talks in late October.

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (, born 13 September 1950) is a Polish left-wing politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland for a year from 7 February 1996 to 31 October 1997, after being defeated in the Parliamentary elections by the Solidarity ...

, 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 Zbigniew Eugeniusz Religa (; 16 December 1938 – 8 March 2009) was a prominent Polish cardiac surgeon and politician. Career as doctor Religa finished his studies at the Medical University of Warsaw in 1963. From 1966 to 1980 he worked in ...

and

Maciej Giertych Maciej Marian Giertych (, born 24 March 1936 in Warsaw) is a Polish dendrologist and social conservative politician of the League of Polish Families (LPR). He favours state intervention in the economy. He was a member of the Sejm (between 2001 a ...

. 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 Gabriel Janowski (born 22 April 1947 in Konstantów) – Polish politician, activist of opposition in People's Republic of Poland, senator of the first term of office of Senate of the Republic of Poland, MP of first, third and fourth term of ...

, Jan Antoni Kiełb, Waldemar Janusz Kossakowski, Marian Romuald Rembelski,

Zbigniew Roliński Zbigniew () is a Polish masculine given name, originally Zbygniew . This West Slavic name is derived from the Polish elements ''Zby-'' (from ''zbyć, zbyć się, or pozbyć się'', meaning "to dispel", "to get rid of") and ''gniew'', meaning "an ...

, Sławomir Salomon,

Maria Szyszkowska Maria Szyszkowska (born October 7, 1937 in Warsaw) is a Polish academic, writer and former Senator. Szyszkowska was a member of the Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) and chaired that Party's Ethics Committee. She is currently a leader of a soc ...

Bolesław Tejkowski Bolesław Tejkowski (15 December 1933 – 4 June 2022) was a Polish sociologist, engineer, academic, and politician. He was president of the from 1990 to 2022. Tejkowski died on 4 June 2022 at the age of 88. References 1933 births 2022 d ...

. The figure of

Józef Tusk Józef Tusk (23 March 1907 – 12 June 1987) was the grandfather of the former Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk. During World War II, he served in the Wehrmacht, which proved to be controversial during the 2005 Polish presidential election ...

, grandfather of incumbent Polish Prime Minister

, 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 World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, which was the biggest controversy of the election. Barbara Szczepuła ,
Józef Tusk i inni
', Dziennik Bałtycki, 2006-08-04
Raport o dziadku z Wehrmachtu
',

Wprost ''Wprost'' (, meaning "Directly") is a Polish-language weekly news magazine published in Poznań, Poland.

, 2006-08-17

Candidates

File:Henryka Bochniarz official photo.JPG, Former Minister of Industry and Trade

Henryka Bochniarz Henryka Teodora Bochniarz, Ph.D. (born in Świebodzin on 29 October 1947) is a Polish economist and administrator who is a former Minister of Industry and Trade in the Government of Poland. Bochniarz is also the founder and head of the Polish C ...

(Independent), 57 File:Marek Borowski Kancelaria Senatu 2015.jpg, Former Marshall of the Sejm

Marek Borowski Marek Stefan Borowski (; born 4 January 1946 in Warsaw, Poland) is a Polish left-wing politician. He led the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) for a time and was Speaker of the Sejm (the lower, more powerful, house of Poland's parliament) from 200 ...

( SDPL),59 File:Leszek Bubel.JPG, Former Member of the Sejm Leszek Bubel ( Polish National Party), 48 File:Amerykanski adwokat USA Liviusz Ilasz.jpg, Lawyer Liwiusz Ilasz (Independent), 43 File:Lech Kaczyński.jpg, Mayor of Warsaw

( Law and Justice), 56 File:Kalinowski, Jaroslaw-2504.jpg, Former Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kalinowski ( PSL), 43 File:Korwin.png, Former Member of the Sejm

Janusz Korwin-Mikke Janusz Ryszard Korwin-Mikke (; born 27 October 1942), also known by his initials JKM or simply as Korwin, is a Polish far-right politician, paleolibertarian and author. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2014 until 2018. He was the ...

(

Real Politics Union The Real Politics Union ( pl, Unia Polityki Realnej, UPR) is a national conservative and economically liberal political party in Poland. In the past it was right-libertarian and classical liberal. Popular support and funding UPR was founded in ...

), 63 File:Andrzej Lepper in his office 2002 (2) (cropped).jpg, Former Deputy Marshal of the Sejm Andrzej Lepper (

Self-Defense Self-defense (self-defence primarily in Commonwealth English) is a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force ...

), 51 File:Adam Słomka Sejm 2016.jpg, Former Member of the Sejm Adam Słomka (Polish Confederation), 41 File:Donald Tusk (6165309851) (cropped).jpg, Deputy Marshal of the Sejm

(

), 48 File:Stan Tyminski.jpg, Businessman Stanisław Tymiński (Independent), 57 *Physician Jan Pyszko (Polish League), 75

Withdrawn

File:Zbigniew Religa.jpg, Senator

( Centre Party), 66 File:Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (senator).jpg, Marshal of the Sejm

(

Democratic Left Alliance The Democratic Left Alliance () was a social-democratic political party in Poland. It was formed in 9 July 1991 as an electoral alliance of centre-left parties, and became a single party on 15 April 1999. It was the major coalition party in Pol ...

), 55 *MEP

( League of Polish Families), 69

Dead

*Journalist

Daniel Podrzycki Daniel Tomasz Podrzycki (; 14 June 1963 – 24 September 2005) was a Polish socialist politician. Podrzycki was born in Siemianowice Śląskie. His career began from participation in the activity of illegal students' circles of Warsaw, which ...

( Polish Labour Party), 42

Opinion polls

Results

Voters turnout in the first round was quite low with only 49.7 percent of all eligible voters casting their votes. Wybory prezydenckie 2005 I tura

References

External links

Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker

Rzeczpospolita () is the official name of Poland and a traditional name for some of its predecessor states. It is a compound of "thing, matter" and "common", a calque of Latin ''rés pública'' ( "thing" + "public, common"), i.e. ''republic'', in Engli ...

Official resultsReference files on the Poland's presidential candidates.
{{History of the Third Polish Republic

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Presidential elections in Poland History of Poland (1989–present) Lech Kaczyński