Polish presidential election, 2000

Polish presidential election, 2000

8 October 2000

Turnout 61.08%   Nominee Aleksander Kwaśniewski Andrzej Olechowski Party Independent Independent Popular vote 9,485,224 3,044,141 Percentage 53.9% 17.3%   Nominee Marian Krzaklewski Jarosław Kalinowski Party AWS PSL Popular vote 2,739,621 1,047,949 Percentage 15.6% 6.0%

President before election Aleksander Kwaśniewski Independent President Aleksander Kwaśniewski Independent

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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

President Kwaśniewski was seen as very likely to win re-election in the run up to the presidential election^[1] with polls showing that his popularity was high as 70% support.^[2] His main challenger was expected to be Marian Krzaklewski from the Solidarity Electoral Action, which had formed the government since winning the last parliamentary elections in 1997.^[3] The other main candidate was a former Foreign Minister and more liberal conservative Andrzej Olechowski,^[3] who won support from voters who were discontented with both of the other main candidates and in particular younger voters, businessmen and intellectuals.^[4]

Candidates seen as having less of a chance included Andrzej Lepper, a populist farmers leader who opposed entry into the European Union and former president Lech Wałęsa.^[3] Wałęsa was rejected as the candidate for the Solidarity party he had won the presidency for, and thus ran separately in the election.^[5]

In order to be elected in the first round a candidate had to gain over 50% of the vote. If no candidate reached this level, then a second round would have been held between the top two candidates. As the campaign continued, the biggest question in the election was whether or not incumbent President Kwaśniewski would win the 50% required to avoid a second round.^[6]

In the August before the election Kwaśniewski and another former president and candidate Lech Wałęsa were investigated by a court on allegations that they had been informers for the Communist secret police.^[2] If they had been found guilty they could have been banned from seeking election to political office for 10 years.^[3] However they both claimed that the evidence had been manipulated by political opponents and were cleared by the court.^[7]

Solidarity candidate Krzaklewski attacked Kwaśniewski for his past as a Communist party activist.^[8] However opinion polls in August showed this had little effect with Kwaśniewski well ahead with over 60% support, while Krzaklewski was second and Olechowski third, but both a long way behind.^[3] President Kwaśniewski's campaign focused on reconciling all of Poland with slogans including "Poland, our common home".^[9] Most voters felt he had done well as President and he was seen as having done a good job in guiding Poland to membership of NATO.^[10] Krzaklewski's popularity was not high due to the infighting in the government led by his Solidarity party since they had won the 1997 parliamentary election.^[11] Meanwhile Lech Wałęsa trailed badly in the polls with only about 2% support, which Wałęsa saw as being due to voters seeing him as being responsible for the pain involved in the transition from communism.^[5]

In the election 3 candidates ran on platforms against the European Union.^[12] During the campaign one of them, Andrzej Lepper, was arrested for illegally blocking a customs post, however he claimed that this was an attempt to sabotage his campaign.^[13]

As the election neared Kwaśniewski dropped in the polls and it became uncertain whether he would win the 50% required to avoid a second round. This followed a television advertisement from Solidarity candidate Krzaklewski in which Kwaśniewski was accused of having mocked Pope John Paul II.^[14] The video showed Kwaśniewski apparently urging his security advisor to kiss the ground is a parody of the Pope, although Kwaśniewski claimed this was inaccurate.^[6] At least one poll showed Kwaśniewski's support having dropped by 10% in one week following this, however it was the other main candidate, Andrzej Olechowski, who benefited as Krzaklewski was seen as being tarnished for having run a negative campaign.^[11]

Candidates

• 

  Chairman of Solidarity Marian Krzaklewski

• 

  Incumbent Aleksander Kwaśniewski

• 

  Activist Andrzej Lepper

• 

  Activist Jan Łopuszański

• 

  Chairman of Unia Polityki Realnej Janusz Korwin-Mikke

• 

  Independent Andrzej Olechowski

• 

  Former President Lech Wałęsa

Results

Incumbent President Kwaśniewski won the election in the first round receiving almost 54% of the vote.^[4] Independent Andrzej Olechowski came second beating Solidarity candidate Krzaklewski into third place.^[4] Meanwhile former President Lech Wałęsa only won 1% of the vote^[15] and following the election stood down as leader of his small Christian Democratic party.^[4][16]

References

History of the Third Polish Republic 1990–1995 Wałęsa Presidency Round Table Agreement 1990 presidential election 1991 parliamentary election 1993 parliamentary election 1995–2005 Kwaśniewski Presidency 1995 presidential election 1996 enfranchisement and privatisation referendums 1997 Constitution 1997 parliamentary election 2000 presidential election 2001 parliamentary election Rywin affair 2003 invasion of Iraq EU membership referendum Accession to the EU 2005–2010 Kaczyński Presidency 2005 parliamentary election 2005 presidential election 2007 parliamentary election Smolensk Air Crash 2010–2015 Komorowski Presidency 2010 presidential election 2011 parliamentary election 2015 presidential election 2015-present Duda Presidency 2015 parliamentary election 2015 referendum

Elections and referendums in Poland Royal elections 1573 1576 1587 1632 1648 1669 1674 1697 1704 1733 1764 Parliamentary elections 1919 1922 1928 1930 1935 1938 1947 1952 1957 1961 1965 1969 1972 1976 1980 1985 1989 1991 1993 1997 2001 2005 2007 2011 2015 Next Presidential elections 1922 (9 Dec) 1922 (20 Dec) 1926 (May) 1926 (Jun) 1933 1947 1989 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 Local elections 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 European elections 2004 2009 2014 2019 Referendums 1920 1921 1946 1987 1996 1997 2003 2015