Polish parliamentary election, 2005

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Parliamentary elections for both houses of the Parliament of Poland were held on September 25, 2005. Thirty million voters were eligible to vote for all 460 members of the lower house, the Assembly of the Republic of Poland (Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej), and all 100 members of the upper house, the Senate of the Republic of Poland (Senat Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej).

(IMPORTANT: This article seems to be outdated, given the very recent political development in Poland. - Now the PiS has formed a minority government with support from the far right side! Maybe somebody with more knowledge of Polish politics could update this page?)

The election resulted in a sweeping victory for two parties of the center-right, the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) and the conservative-liberal Citizens Platform (PO). The incumbent center-left government of the Alliance of the Democratic Left (SLD) was defeated. The two victorious parties won 288 out of the 460 seats, while the SLD won only 55 seats. The PiS won 155 seats while PO won 133, giving the PiS leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, the first opportunity to form a government. The outgoing Prime Minister, Marek Belka, lost his seat.

In the Senate the PiS and PO are expected to win 83 of the 100 seats (PiS 49, PO 34), leaving eight other parties with the remaining 17 seats. The SLD won no seats in the Senate.

The Sejm is elected by proportional representation from multi-member constituencies, with seats divided among parties which gain more than five percent of the votes using the d'Hondt method. On the other hand, the Senate is elected under first past the post block voting. This tends to mean that the party or coalition which wins the elections will have a larger majority in the Senate than in the Sejm.

At the 2001 elections, the SLD and UP won 216 of the 460 seats, and were able to form a government with the support of the Polish Peasant Party (PSL). The former ruling party, Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) based on the Solidarity trade union, lost all its seats. In its place several new right-wing parties emerged, such as the PO and the PiS.

After 2003 a variety of factors combined to bring about a collapse in support for the government. Discontent with high unemployment, government spending cuts (especially on health, education and welfare), privatisations and Poland's involvement in the War in Iraq was compounded by a series of corruption scandals, leading to the resignation of Prime Minister Leszek Miller in May 2004 and his replacement by Belka. All opinions polls suggested that the governing parties would be heavily defeated at these elections and that the right-wing parties would win a large majority. With the expected downfall of the left, the right-wing parties competed mainly against each other.

Contents

Contestants

The parties running for seats in this election were mainly the same as in 2001, with the exception of a splinter group of the SLD called SDPL and the Democratic Party formed from the Freedom Union (UW) and dissidents from SLD. These parties failed to win seats.

The BBC commented on election day: "The two centre-right parties are both rooted in the anti-communist Solidarity movement but differ on issues such as the budget and taxation. Law and Justice, whose agenda includes tax breaks and state aid for the poor, has pledged to uphold traditional family and Christian values. It is suspicious of economic liberalism. Civic Platform strongly promotes free market forces and wants to introduce a flat 15% rate for income tax, corporation tax and VAT. It also promises to move faster on deregulation and privatisation, in order to adopt the euro as soon as possible."

Results


Summary of the 25 September 2005 Sejm and Senate election results Votes % Seats +/- Senators
Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc, PiS) 3,185,714 27.0 155 +111 49
Citizens Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) 2,849,259 24.1 133 +68 34
Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland (Samoobrona RP) 1,347,355 11.4 56 +3 3
Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD) 1,335,257 11.3 55 -161 -
League of Polish Families (Liga Polskich Rodzin, LPR) 940,726 8.0 34 -4 7
Polish Peasant Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL) 821,656 7.0 25 -17 2
Social Democracy of Poland (Socjaldemokracja Polska, SDPL)   3.9 -   -
Democratic Party (Partia Demokratyczna)   2.5 -   -
Election Committee German Minority (Komitet Wyborczy Mniejszosc Niemiecka) 34.469 0,3 2    
Non-partisans         5
Total (turnout 40.6 %) 11,804,676   460   100
  • Registered voters: 30,338,316
  • Votes counted: 12,255,875
  • Invalid votes: 451,199
  • Valid votes: 11,804,676

The new majority coalition won 62.6 percent of seats in the Assembly, short of the two-thirds supermajority required to carry out more ambitious projects, such as constitutional reform. The populist and isolationist Self-Defense of the Polish Republic (Samoobrona) slightly improved its representation and became the largest opposition party ahead of the SLD, which despite losing most of its seats performed slightly better than suggested in opinion polls. It has, however, lost all its Senate seats. The League of Polish Families and the Polish Peasant Party retained their representation. The German minority in Poland is exempt from the requirement of achieving at least 5% of the total vote and retained their 2 seats.

Distribution of vote

Map showing the geographical distribution of support for the new government coalition (click map to enlarge)
Enlarge
Map showing the geographical distribution of support for the new government coalition (click map to enlarge)

Although the new governing coalition of the PiS and the PO won a large overall majority, its vote was very unevenly distributed, creating the basis for possible future conflicts. Support for the new government is overwhelmingly concentrated in the cities, particularly Warsaw and the southern industrial areas around Kraków and Katowice, but also including Gdańsk, Gdynia, Poznań, Wrocław and Szczecin. The only urban centre not to give the new government a majority of its vote was Łódź. By contrast the government parties failed to win a majority in any rural district except Rzeszów in the south. In seven rural districts the government parties polled less the 40 percent of the vote, while in one (Chełm) they polled less than 35 percent. While no single opposition party polled a majority in any district, the vote shows the continuing sharp divide in Polish politics between urban voters, who are generally more socially liberal and in favour of free-market economics, and rural voters, who are more conservative both socially and economically.

After the elections

Negotiations between PiS and PO about forming the new government collapsed in late October, and on 1 November the PiS announced a minority government headed by Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz as the new Prime Minister. The negotiations were affected by the 9 October presidential election, where the PiS victor Lech Kaczyński is a twin brother of the PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński; Jarosław Kaczyński had declared that he will not become the Prime Minister if his brother wins the election.

A major stumbling block against forming a coalition was the PO's insistence on receiving the Interior portfolio if it was to enter a coalition government with the PiS, to prevent one party from controlling all three of the "power" ministries (Security, Justice and Interior) that control the police and security services. The PO also opposed a "tactical alliance" between the PiS and Samoobrona, who share Eurosceptic and populists sentiments, although differing on economic policy. The election campaign, in which both centre-right parties competed mainly against each other rather than parties on the left, accentuated differences and created an antagonistic relationship between the two parties.

See also

Polish presidential election, 2005

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