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| Turnout | 61.08% ( 3.62pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Presidential elections were held inPoland on 8 October 2000. IncumbentPresidentAleksander Kwaśniewski was easily re-elected in the first round with more than 50% of the vote, the only time a direct presidential election in Poland has not gone to a second round. Kwaśniewski would be the last president to be re-elected untilAndrzej Duda in2020.
ThePresident of Poland is elected for a five-year term using thetwo-round system; if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, a run-off is held between the top two candidates. Presidents serve a five-year term and can be re-elected once. The president-elect takes the oath of office on the day the previous President's term expires before theNational Assembly (a joint session of theSejm and theSenate).
In order to be registered to contest the election, a candidate must be a Polish citizen, be at least 35 years old on the day of the first round of the election, and have collected at least 100,000 voters' signatures. In 2000, 13 candidates registered, but one - formerPrime MinisterJan Olszewski - withdrew before the first round, so 12 valid candidates appeared on the ballot.
Aleksander Kwaśniewski was elected in the1995 presidential election and governed the country alongside theDemocratic Left Alliance-Polish People's Party coalition until the1997 parliamentary election, when the opposition, united under theSolidarity Electoral Action and led bythe trade union's leader,Marian Krzaklewski, came to power, in a coalition with theFreedom Union. The coalition put upJerzy Buzek as the next Prime Minister, as Krzaklewski had been seeking to challenge Kwaśniewski for the Presidency instead.[1]
President Kwaśniewski was seen as very likely to win re-election in the run up to the presidential election[2] with polls showing that his popularity was high as 70% support.[3] His main challenger was expected to beMarian Krzaklewski from theSolidarity Electoral Action, which had formed the government since winning the lastparliamentary elections in 1997.[4] The other main candidate was a formerForeign Minister and more liberal conservativeAndrzej Olechowski,[4] who won support from voters who were discontented with both of the other main candidates and in particular younger voters, businessmen and intellectuals.[5]
Candidates seen as having less of a chance includedAndrzej Lepper, a populist farmers leader who opposed entry into theEuropean Union and former presidentLech Wałęsa.[4] Wałęsa was rejected as the candidate for the Solidarity party he had won the presidency for, and thus ran separately in the election.[6]
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.[7]
In the August before the election Kwaśniewski and another former president and candidateLech Wałęsa were investigated by a court on allegations that they had beeninformers for theCommunist secret police.[3] If they had been found guilty they could have been banned from seeking election to political office for 10 years.[4] However they both claimed that the evidence had been manipulated by political opponents and were cleared by the court.[8]
Solidarity candidate Krzaklewski attacked Kwaśniewski for his past as aCommunist party activist.[9] Howeveropinion 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.[4] President Kwaśniewski's campaign focused on reconciling all of Poland with slogans including "Poland, our common home".[10] Most voters felt he had done well as President and he was seen as having done a good job in guiding Poland to membership ofNATO.[11] Krzaklewski's popularity was not high due to the infighting in the government led by his Solidarity party since they had won the1997 parliamentary election.[12] 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 fromcommunism.[6]
In the election 3 candidates ran on platforms against theEuropean Union.[13] During the campaign one of them, Andrzej Lepper, was arrested for illegally blocking acustoms post, however he claimed that this was an attempt to sabotage his campaign.[14]
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 atelevision advertisement from Solidarity candidate Krzaklewski in which Kwaśniewski was accused of having mockedPope John Paul II.[15] 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.[7] 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.[12]
| Candidate | 2000 actual | 2024 equivalent | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spent | Cost | Spent | Cost | ||
| Kwaśniewski | 11,572,000 | 1,22 | 5,176,889 | 0,55 | |
| Olechowski | 1,965,000 | 0,65 | 879,069 | 0,29 | |
| Krzaklewski | 10,717,000 | 3,91 | 4,794,393 | 1,75 | |
| Kalinowski | 2,113,000 | 2,02 | 945,278 | 0,90 | |
| Lepper | 56,000 | 0,10 | 25,052 | 0,04 | |
| Korwin-Mikke | 75,000 | 0,30 | 33,552 | 0,13 | |
| Wałęsa | 299,000 | 1,67 | 133,761 | 0,75 | |
| Łopuszański | 292,000 | 2,10 | 130,630 | 0,94 | |
| Grabowski | 74,000 | 0,83 | 33,104 | 0,37 | |
| Ikonowicz | 29,000 | 0,75 | 12,973 | 0,34 | |
| Wilecki | 53,000 | 1,82 | 23,710 | 0,81 | |
| Pawłowski | 15,000 | 0,87 | 6710 | 0,39 | |
| Source: Dudek[1] | |||||
There was no second round sinceAleksander Kwaśniewski got over 50% in the first round.
First Round
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| Pollster | Date of polling | Kwaśniewski IN | Olechowski IN | Krzaklewski AWS | Kalinowski PSL | Lepper SRP | Korwin UPR | Wałęsa ChDRP | Łopuszański [pl] PP | Grabowski KdP [pl] | Ikonowicz PPS | Wilecki [pl] SN | Pawłowski [pl] IN | Olszewski ROP | Others and Undecideds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election results | 8 October 2000 | 53.90 | 17.30 | 15.57 | 5.95 | 3.05 | 1.43 | 1.01 | 0.79 | 0.51 | 0.22 | 0.16 | 0.10 | - | - |
| CBOS | Sept.-Oct. 2000 | 55 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 0 | 1 | 12 |
| CBOS | September 2000 | 62 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | <0.5 | <0.5 | <0.5 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| CBOS | August 2000 | 62 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | <0.5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| CBOS | July 2000 | 62 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | - | - | <0.5 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| CBOS | June 2000 | 65 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | <0.5 | - | - | <0.5 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| Election called bySejmMarshalMaciej Płażyński (16 June 2000)[16] | |||||||||||||||
| CBOS | May 2000 | 62 | 11 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | <0.5 | - | - | <0.5 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| CBOS | April 2000 | 61 | 12 | 4 | - | 2 | <0.5 | 4 | - | - | - | <0.5 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| CBOS | January 2000 | 55 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | <0.5 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| Sources:[17] | |||||||||||||||
Incumbent President Kwaśniewski won the election in the first round receiving almost 54% of the vote.[5] Independent Andrzej Olechowski came second beating Solidarity candidate Krzaklewski into third place.[5] Meanwhile, former President Lech Wałęsa only won 1% of the vote[18] and following the election stood down as leader of his smallChristian Democratic party.[5][19]
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aleksander Kwaśniewski | Independent (SLD) | 9,485,224 | 53.90 | |
| Andrzej Olechowski | Independent (SKL) | 3,044,141 | 17.30 | |
| Marian Krzaklewski | Solidarity Electoral Action | 2,739,621 | 15.57 | |
| Jarosław Kalinowski | Polish People's Party | 1,047,949 | 5.95 | |
| Andrzej Lepper | Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland | 537,570 | 3.05 | |
| Janusz Korwin-Mikke | Real Politics Union | 252,499 | 1.43 | |
| Lech Wałęsa | Christian Democracy of the Third Polish Republic | 178,590 | 1.01 | |
| Jan Łopuszański [pl] | Polish Agreement | 139,682 | 0.79 | |
| Dariusz Grabowski | Coalition for Poland [pl] | 89,002 | 0.51 | |
| Piotr Ikonowicz | Polish Socialist Party | 38,672 | 0.22 | |
| Tadeusz Wilecki [pl] | National Party | 28,805 | 0.16 | |
| Bogdan Pawłowski [pl] | Independent | 17,164 | 0.10 | |
| Total | 17,598,919 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 17,598,919 | 98.93 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 190,312 | 1.07 | ||
| Total votes | 17,789,231 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 29,122,304 | 61.08 | ||
| Source:PKW | ||||
 Polish presidential elections | |
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| Indirect elections | |
| Direct elections | |
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