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2010 Polish presidential election

← 2005 20 June 2010 (first round) 4 July 2010 (second round) 2015 →
Turnout	54.92% (first round) 5.20pp 55.30% (second round) 4.32pp
Nominee Bronisław Komorowski Jarosław Kaczyński Party PO PiS Popular vote 8,933,887 7,919,134 Percentage 53.01% 46.99%
Second round results by powiat
President before election Bronisław Komorowski (Acting) PO Elected President Bronisław Komorowski PO

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v t e

Presidential elections were held in Poland on 20 June 2010. As no candidate received a majority of votes in the first round, a second round was held on 4 July 2010. Bronisław Komorowski, the acting President of Poland and vice-chairman of the Civic Platform, defeated Jarosław Kaczyński, twin brother of recently deceased President Lech Kaczyński and chairman of Law and Justice (PiS). The global financial crisis, flooding in Poland and the Smolensk disaster were the main themes in the last months of the election campaign.

As of 2024, this remains the last Polish presidential election won by a non PiS-aligned candidate.

Background

The 2010 presidential election was expected to be a rematch of the 2005 election between Lech Kaczyński and Donald Tusk. Since the last presidential election, Polish politics had become centered around the rivalry between Law and Justice and the Civic Platform. President Kaczyński and Prime Minister Tusk were constantly battling each other over who should represent Poland on the international stage. Tusk was leading Kaczyński in all the opinion polling (as he did in 2005 before he ultimately lost) and the election was expected to be a dirty one. However, this rematch never came to be. Donald Tusk announced in January 2010 that he will not run for President because he wants to remain Prime Minister. Lech Kaczyński was set to declare his candidacy for re-election on 23 May but he died on 10 April in the Smolensk air disaster.

After Donald Tusk declined to run for president, the Civic Platform organized a presidential primary. The primary was won by Bronisław Komorowski who defeated Radosław Sikorski receiving 68.5% of the vote to Sikorski's 31.5%. Bronisław Komorowski consistently lead Lech Kaczyński by double digits in the first round and by a 2-to-1 margin in the second round. No other candidate registered support in the double digits.

After President Lech Kaczyński's death in a plane crash on 10 April 2010, the Constitution required the Marshal of the Sejm to declare the date within two weeks, with the election to take place on a weekend within the following 60 days, i.e. 20 June at the latest. On 21 April, the Marshal, Bronisław Komorowski, announced the election date as 20 June 2010. Candidates were required to register by 26 April 2010 (with 1,000 signatures of voters in support) and submit 100,000 signatures by 6 May 2010.

Originally, Kaczyński was up for re-election between 19 September and 3 October; the exact date would have been announced between 23 May and 23 June, before the end of his first five-year term of office.

Two candidates for the election died in the crash. Incumbent Lech Kaczyński was nominated as the Law and Justice party candidate (he had yet to accept the nomination, but it was widely believed that he would do so), and Jerzy Szmajdziński was to have run for the Democratic Left Alliance. Jarosław Kaczyński ran for president as the replacement for his deceased twin brother. Jerzy Szmajdziński's replacement was Grzegorz Napieralski.

Senate by-elections to fill the three seats whose senators died in the crash – Krystyna Bochenek (PO), Janina Fetlińska (PiS) and Stanisław Zając (PiS, himself elected in a by-election on 22 June 2008 to replace Andrzej Mazurkiewicz) – were held on the same day.

Candidates

In total, 23 candidates registered with the Polish National Electoral Commission on, or just following, the 26 April deadline. 17 of the 23 candidacies were accepted by the commission, whilst the remaining 6 were rejected because they had not gathered the required 1000 signatures.

Only ten candidates collected the required 100,000 signatures and were eligible to run for president.

• Former Marshal of the Sejm Marek Jurek (Right of the Republic), 49
• Former Prime Minister and Party Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński (Law and Justice), 60
• Marshal of the Sejm and Acting President Bronisław Komorowski (Civic Platform), 58
• Former Member of the Sejm Janusz Korwin-Mikke (Liberty and Lawfulness), 67
• Former Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper (Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland), 55
• Founder and leader of Fighting Solidarity Kornel Morawiecki (Independent), 69
• Party Chairman and Sejm Member Grzegorz Napieralski (Democratic Left Alliance), 36
• Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrzej Olechowski (Independent), 62
• Former Prime Minister and current Deputy Prime Minister Waldemar Pawlak (Polish People's Party), 50
• Chairman of Free Trade Union "August '80" Bogusław Ziętek (Polish Labour Party), 45

Rejected candidates

• Zdzisław Jankowski
• Gabriel Janowski – national-conservative, former Minister of Agriculture
• Dariusz Kosiur
• Bartłomiej Kurzeja – artist, self-described as "the National Sculptor"
• Krzysztof Mazurski – scientist, geographer
• Paweł Pietrzyk
• Roman Sklepowicz
• Paweł Soroka – political scientist
• Bogdan Szpryngiel – a former Libertas candidate to the European Parliament
• Ludwik Wasiak
• Józef Wójcik
• Waldemar Urbanowski

Withdrawn

• Ludwik Dorn – former Marshal of Sejm (Law and Justice), candidate of liberal-conservative party Poland Plus.
• Tomasz Nałęcz – former Vice-Marshal of Sejm, candidate of Social Democracy of Poland (SdPl).
• Zdzisław Podkański – former member of the European Parliament (Polish People's Party), leader of the national-conservative party Piast.

Dead

• Lech Kaczyński – President who applied to start for reelection. First candidate of Law and Justice.
• Jerzy Szmajdziński – former Minister of Defence, Vice-Marshal of Sejm. First candidate of Democratic Left Alliance.

Campaign

Bronisław Komorowski's campaign slogan was "Unity builds" (Zgoda buduje) and his strategy was to portray himself as an independent politician ready to work with everyone to fix the nation's problems. He pledged to work closely with the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to adopt the euro in about five years, end the unpopular military mission in Afghanistan and promote pro-market reforms.

Jarosław Kaczyński's campaign slogan was "Poland is the most important" (Polska jest najważniejsza) and he aimed to soften his own image and present himself as someone ready for compromise. He praised his late twin brother's legacy and promised to continue his policies as President. He made it a priority to fight crime and corruption, scale back market reforms to preserve a strong welfare state and promote Roman Catholic values

Opinion polls

First round

Second Round

Results

There were 10 candidates in the first round of voting. Bronisław Komorowski of Civic Platform received 41.5% and Jarosław Kaczyński of Law and Justice received 36.5%, causing a second round of voting between the two. The other eight candidates were eliminated.

Soon after exit polls were released in the second round, Jarosław Kaczyński conceded that he had been defeated. Bronisław Komorowski appeared to tentatively claim victory, stating: "Tonight we will open a small bottle of champagne and tomorrow we will open a big bottle." The exit polls put Komorowski ahead of Kaczyński by 53% to 47%. On the following day, Komorowski was declared the winner of the election. The final result put Komorowski with 53.01% of the vote, and Kaczyński with 46.99%. Komorowski's win resulted in Civic Platform holding both the Presidency and the government (under Prime Minister Donald Tusk). Correspondents in US and British business newspapers suggested that Komorowski's win would mean closer engagement with the European Union, and such domestic economic reforms as deficit reduction.

References

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45. (in Polish) Pomorska.pl Archived 28 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
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51. Foreign, Our (5 July 2010). "Poland's liberals dominate after dead president's twin defeated". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
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53. Buckley, Neil (5 July 2010). "Poland poised for vital reforms". Financial Times. Pearson PLC. Retrieved 5 July 2010.

External links

• The official election site of the Polish Election Committee (in Polish)

v t e Polish presidential elections
Indirect elections	1922 1926 1933 1947 1989
Direct elections	1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025

v t e Elections and referendums in Poland
Presidential elections	1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025
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 2019 2023 Next
Local elections	1916–17 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1929 1933–34 1936 1938–39 1954 1958 1961 1965 1969 1973 1976 1980 1984 1988 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2024
European elections	2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Referendums	1946 1987 1996 1997 2003 2015 2023
Silesian Sejm elections	1922 1930 (May) 1930 (Nov) 1935
See also: Elections in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

v t e 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 disaster
2010–2015 Komorowski Presidency	2010 presidential election 2011 parliamentary election Euro 2012 2015 presidential election
2015-present Duda Presidency	2015 parliamentary election 2015 referendum 2015 constitutional crisis 2019 parliamentary election COVID-19 pandemic in Poland 2020 presidential election 2021 border crisis 2023 parliamentary election

• 2010 Polish presidential election
• Presidential elections in Poland
• 2010 elections in Poland
• 2010 elections in Europe
• June 2010 events in Poland
• July 2010 events in Poland