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Polish presidential election, 2005

Presidential elections were held in Poland on October 9 and October 23, 2005. The current President of Poland, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, has served two five-year terms and cannot stand for a third term.Two center-right candidates, Donald Tusk, chairman of the Civic Platform party (PO), and Lech Kaczyński, leader of the Law and Justice party (PiS) and mayor of Warsaw, led the poll in the first round. As neither received 50 percent of the vote, a second round was held on 23 October. In this round, Kaczyński defeated Tusk, polling about 54 percent of the vote.Although both leading candidates came from the center-right, and their two parties are forming a coalition government following the legislative elections on 25 September, there were important differences between Tusk and Kaczyński. Tusk is considered  more socially and economically liberal, favoring more rapid European integration and a free-market economy. Kaczyński is more socially conservative  and is more suspicious towards the European Union.

Voting results