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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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.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

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%.^[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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8]

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.^[9]

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.^[10] Jarosław Kaczyński ran for president as the replacement for his deceased twin brother.^[11] Jerzy Szmajdziński's replacement was Grzegorz Napieralski.^[12]

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.^[3]

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.^[13]

• 
  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.^[14]
• Tomasz Nałęcz – former Vice-Marshal of Sejm, candidate of Social Democracy of Poland (SdPl).^[15]
• Zdzisław Podkański – former member of the European Parliament (Polish People's Party), leader of the national-conservative party Piast.^[16]

Dead

• Lech Kaczyński – President who applied to start for reelection. First candidate of Law and Justice.^[17]
• Jerzy Szmajdziński – former Minister of Defence, Vice-Marshal of Sejm. First candidate of Democratic Left Alliance.^[18]

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.^[19]

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 ^[19]

Opinion polls

First round