Elsevier

Electoral Studies

Volume 30, Issue 1, March 2011, Pages 241-244
Electoral Studies

Notes on Recent Elections
The 2010 presidential election in Poland

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2011.01.005Get rights and content

Research highlights

► Bronisław Komorowski is elected President. ► His victory brings an end to a period of cohabitation. ► The liberal conservative party Civic Platform controls both the presidency and the government. ► The accidental death of the incumbent President Lech Kaczyński has affected both the timing of the election and the tone of the campaign.

Section snippets

Background

Although Poland can be characterised as a parliamentary system, a significant role is given to the President. Beyond symbolic representation – the President is “the supreme representative of the Republic of Poland” – the head of the state also has substantial political power. He or she is the commander of the armed forces and has the right to veto parliamentary bills (although this veto can be overruled by a three-fifths majority in the Sejm). The Polish head of state is elected for a five-year

Candidates

Out of the 22 declared candidates for the Presidency, ten were able to gather the 100,000 signatures required for starting in the election. All of these were men. While most of the candidates had already declared their willingness to run in the election before 10 April, two of the main parties had to find new candidates because the representatives they had previously chosen had died in the tragedy. Lech Kaczyński, while he had not formally accepted the nomination of his party, had been very

Campaign

While the informal campaign had started early (see Hall, 2009), the formal campaign was eventually very short. Lech Kaczyński’s accidental death, and the air crash more generally, had the consequence of not only advancing the election but also delaying the beginning of campaigning with candidates not wanting to engage in political struggles amid an atmosphere of mourning. The first opinion poll after the registration of candidates, two weeks after the air crash, confirmed the expected dominance

Results

The participation rate of about 55% in both rounds of the election can be regarded as a respectable turnout considering the low intensity of the campaign and the fact that the second round of the election took place during the summer holiday period. Turnout was higher than in the previous presidential election but still well below the average of such elections in the 1990s. As expected, the first round was won by Komorowski but by a much smaller margin over his main rival than had been

Implications

Komorowski’s victory leaves all of the executive power in PO’s hands. This gives them greater scope for implementing the reforms that had often been presented by the party as difficult to carry out during Lech Kaczyński’s term in office because of the hostility and delays imposed by the late President. However, the PO faces a tight time limit. With the next electoral campaign already approaching – the parliamentary elections are planned for next year and likely to already take place in spring

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