| Country: | Poland |
| Type: | presidential |
| Previous Election: | 1990 Polish presidential election |
| Previous Year: | 1990 |
| Next Election: | 2000 Polish presidential election |
| Next Year: | 2000 |
| Election Date: | 5 November 1995 (first round) |
| Turnout: | 64.70% (first round) 4.07pp 68.23% (second round) 14.83pp |
| Nominee1: | Aleksander Kwaśniewski |
| Party1: | Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland |
| Popular Vote1: | 9,704,439 |
| Percentage1: | 51.72% |
| Nominee2: | Lech Wałęsa |
| Party2: | Independent |
| Popular Vote2: | 9,058,176 |
| Percentage2: | 48.28% |
| President | |
| Before Election: | Lech Wałęsa |
| Before Party: | Independent (politician) |
| After Election: | Aleksander Kwaśniewski |
| After Party: | Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland |
Presidential elections were held in Poland on 5 November 1995, with a second round on 19 November.[1] The leader of Social Democracy, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, and incumbent President Lech Wałęsa advanced to the second round. Kwaśniewski won the election with 52% of the vote in the run-off against 48% for Wałęsa.
The two favorites throughout the course of the campaign were the leader of the post-communist SLD Aleksander Kwaśniewski and incumbent President Lech Wałęsa. Kwaśniewski ran a campaign of change and blamed the economic problems in Poland on the post-Solidarity right. His campaign slogan was "Let's choose the future" (Wybierzmy przyszłość). Political opponents challenged his candidacy, and produced evidence to show that he had lied about his education in registration documents and public presentations. There was also some mystery over his graduation from university. A law court confirmed that Kwaśniewski had lied about his record, but did not penalize him for it, judging the information irrelevant to the election result. Meanwhile, Wałęsa was a very unpopular President and some opinion polls even showed that he might not make it into the second round. He was challenged by other post-Solidarity politicians of all sides of the political spectrum ranging from liberal former Minister of Labour and Social Policy Jacek Kuroń to ultraconservative former Prime Minister Jan Olszewski. Rather than focusing on his presidency, he focused on his personal image as an everyday man turned international hero that was created for him while he was chairman of Solidarity. His campaign slogan was "There are many candidates but there is only one Lech Wałęsa" (Kandydatów jest wielu – Lech Wałęsa tylko jeden).[2]
| Poll publisher | Date of polling | Wałęsa | Kuroń | Olszewski | Pawlak | Others and Undecideds | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Election results | 5 November 1995 | 35.11 | 33.11 | 9.22 | 6.86 | 4.31 | 3.53 | 2.76 | 5.1 | |||
| Gazeta Wyborcza | 1 November 1995 | 34 | 31 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 7 | |||
| Wprost | 24 October 1995 | 34 | 24 | 11 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | |||
| Gazeta Wyborcza | 22 October 1995 | 27 | 23 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 25 | |||
| 15 October 1995 | 48.8 | 12.7 | 38.5 | |||||||||
| Gazeta Wyborcza | 15 October 1995 | 27 | 22 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 23 | |||
| Gazeta Wyborcza | 9 October 1995 | 27 | 17 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 17 | |||
| Gazeta Wyborcza | 15 September 1995 | 26 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 12 | 24 | |||
| Election called by Sejm Marshal Józef Zych (9 September 1995)[3] | ||||||||||||
| Wprost | 27 August 1995 | 23 | 14 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 12 | 25 | |||
| Wprost | 9 July 1995 | 26 | 11 | 12 | <1 | 4 | 11 | 12 | 26 | |||
| Wprost | 6 June 1995 | 20 | 8 | 15 | 3 | 3 | 15 | <1 | 36 | |||
| Sources: [4] | ||||||||||||
Kwaśniewski won with 52% of the vote in the run-off. 65% of voters voted in the first round and 68% in the second round.