2015 Polish parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections to both the Sejm and Senate were held in Poland on 25 October 2015.

2015 Polish parliamentary election

25 October 2015
All 460 seats to the Sejm of Poland 231 seats are needed for a majority in the Sejm All 100 seats to the Senate of Poland
Turnout	50.92%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Beata Szydło Ewa Kopacz Paweł Kukiz Party PiS PO Kukiz'15 Leader since Candidate for PM 8 November 2014 28 July 2015 Leader's seat 12 – Chrzanów 19 – Warsaw I 19 – Warsaw I Last election 157 seats, 29.89% 207 seats, 39.18% New party Seats before 134 197 0 Seats won 235 138 42 Seat change 101 59 42 Popular vote 5,711,687 3,661,474 1,339,094 Percentage 37.58% 24.09% 8.81% Swing 7.69% 15.09% New party   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Ryszard Petru Janusz Piechociński Ryszard Galla Party .N PSL MN Leader since 31 May 2015 17 November 2012 25 September 2005 Leader's seat 19 – Warsaw I 20 – Warsaw II (lost re-election) 21 - Opole Last election Did not exist 28 seats, 8.36% 1 seat, 0.19% Seats before 0 38 1 Seats won 28 16 1 Seat change 28 22 Popular vote 1,155,370 779,875 27,530 Percentage 7.60% 5.13% 0.18% Swing New party 3.23% 0.01%
Seats won by Sejm District
Prime Minister before election Ewa Kopacz PO Elected Prime Minister Beata Szydło PiS

The election was won by the largest opposition party, the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS), with 37.6% of the vote against the governing Civic Platform (PO), which achieved 24.1%. Official results, announced on 27 October, gave Law and Justice 235 of 460 seats (51 percent), a majority of four.[1] PiS vice chairwoman Beata Szydło succeeded PO leader Ewa Kopacz as Prime Minister of Poland, heading a one-party cabinet.

It was the first election for a national parliament in Europe since the 1993 Norwegian elections in which the two largest parties were led by a female candidate, and the second election in history (also since the 1993 Norwegian election) where more than three parties fielded female leadership candidates. It was also the first election in Poland since the restoration of full democracy that a party won an absolute majority in the Sejm.

Electoral system

The process of election for the Sejm is through open party-list proportional representation via the D'hondt method in multi-seat constituencies, with a 5% national threshold for single parties and 8% threshold for coalitions (requirements waived for ethnic minorities). The senate is elected using first-past-the-post voting in single-member districts.[2] To be included on a ballot, a senate candidate must present 2,000 signatures of support from their constituents.[3] For Sejm elections, the threshold is 5,000 signatures per constituency, though that requirement is waived for parties that have already registered lists in at least half of all constituencies (21 out of 41 as of this election).[4]

Overall, the Sejm includes 460 MPs. Should a party have 231 or more deputies in Parliament, it has an absolute majority and can thus govern autonomously, without the need for support from other parties. The constitution can be amended with a supermajority of two-thirds, or 307 deputies.

Election date

The date of the election, 25 October, was set by the previous President of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski.[5] The latest possible date for the election to be held was in November 2015, four years after the previous election. Prior to the announcement of the election date, the most likely dates were thought to be in October or November.

In the previous parliamentary elections in 2011 the Civic Platform–Polish People's Party coalition government, in power since 2007, won a second term. All 460 seats in the Sejm and 100 seats in the Senate were up for election.

Parties standing in the election

Nationwide committees

Party		Leader	Ideologies	Political spectrum	Political groups of the European Parliament
	Civic Platform (PO)	Ewa Kopacz	Christian democracy, Liberal conservatism, Pro-Europeanism[6][7][8]	Centre[9][10][11] to Centre-right	European People's Party Group (EPP)
	Law and Justice (PiS) • Solidary Poland (SP) • Poland Together – United Right (PRZP) • Right Wing of the Republic (PRz)	Jarosław Kaczyński Beata Szydło (PM candidate)	National conservatism, Social conservatism, Euroscepticism	Right-wing[12][13][14] to far-right[15]	European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR)
	United Left[16][17][18][19] (ZL) • Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) • Your Movement (TR) • Polish Socialist Party (PPS) • Labour Union (UP) • The Greens (Zieloni) • Polish Labour Party[20] (PPP)	Barbara Nowacka	Social democracy, Social liberalism, Social progressivism, Green politics, Democratic socialism (minority), Feminism[17][20][21][22]	Centre-left to Left-wing	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D)
	Polish People's Party (PSL)	Janusz Piechociński	Christian democracy, strongly based around Agrarianism, Conservatism	Centre-right	European People's Party Group (EPP)
Parties not in the Sejm before the election are below
	Coalition for the Renewal of the Republic - Liberty and Hope (KORWiN)	Janusz Korwin-Mikke	Right libertarianism, Anti-immigration, Hard-Euroscepticism, Paleolibertarianism[23]	Right-wing[24]	Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy (EFDD)
	Kukiz'15 (K'15)	Paweł Kukiz	Populism, Anti-establishment, Anti-particracy[25]	Big tent[26] to Right-wing[27]
	.Modern (.N)	Ryszard Petru	Social liberalism, Economic liberalism, Pro-Europeanism	Centre
	Together (Razem)	collective leadership	Social democracy, Democratic socialism, Progressivism	Left-wing

Regional committees

Party		Leader	Ideology	Political spectrum	Political groups of the European Parliament
	German Minority Electoral Committee (MN)	Ryszard Galla	Regionalism, German minority interests	Centre
Parties not in the Sejm before the election are below
	Congress of the New Right (KNP)	Michał Marusik	Right libertarianism, New right, Euroscepticism	Right-wing	Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF)
	Single-member district – Nonpartisan (JOW Bezpartyjni)	Robert Raczyński	Pro single-member constituency	Big tent
	Committee of Zbigniew Stonoga (KWW ZS)	Zbigniew Stonoga	Anti-communism, Civil libertarianism, Populism	Big tent
	Social Movement of the Republic of Poland (RS RP)	Sławomir Izdebski	Agrarian socialism, Left-wing populism	Left-wing
	United for Silesia (ZdŚ)	Dietmar Brehmer	Silesian regionalism, Fiscal federalism	Centre
	Self-Defence (Samoobrona)	Lech Kuropatwiński	Agrarianism, Left-wing nationalism	Left-wing
	God Bless! (SzB!)	Grzegorz Braun	Monarchism, Traditionalism, Ordoliberalism	Right-wing
	Citizens to Parliament (OdP)	Jan Zbigniew Potocki	Liberal democracy	Big tent

Opinion polls

Election polls

Results

Results of the Sejm election by electoral district. Blue represents Law and Justice, and orange Civic Platform.

Results of the Senate election by single-mandate districts.Blue represents Law and Justice, orange - Civic Platform, green - Polish People Party, grey - independents.

Results of elections 1991–2015

The opposition party, Law and Justice won the election with 37.58% of the vote against the governing Civic Platform, which gained a 24.09% share.[28] Beata Szydło became the new Prime Minister, succeeding Ewa Kopacz.[29][30] Law and Justice became the first party in Poland to win majority government in a free election, since 1991. The other parties considered winners were two newcomer parties, Kukiz's Movement (third place) and Ryszard Petru's Modern party (4th place).

Two of the biggest losers were Civic Platform and the Polish People's Party. PO suffered its worst result in a parliamentary election in ten years, ending eight years of political dominance. The PSL, the junior partner in the outgoing government, had its worst result in 25 years (5.13%), just crossing the 5% threshold by a few thousand votes. Another perceived loser was the Democratic Left Alliance, Poland's largest left-wing party, which failed to win a seat for the first time since the change of system. The SLD ran as the largest partner of the United Left, which was 0.5% short of the 8% threshold for electoral alliances to win seats.

 Summary of the 25 October 2015 Polish parliamentary election results[31]

Parties		Sejm					Senate
		Votes	%	±%	Seats	±	Seats	±
	Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS)	5,711,687	37.58	7.69	235 / 460	78	61 / 100	30
	Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO)	3,661,474	24.09	15.09	138 / 460	69	34 / 100	29
	Kukiz'15 (K'15)	1,339,094	8.81		42 / 460	42	—
	Modern (Nowoczesna, .N)	1,155,370	7.60		28 / 460	28	—
	United Left (Zjednoczona Lewica, ZL)	1,147,102	7.55	11.26	—[lower-alpha 1]	67	—
	Polish People's Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL)	779,875	5.13	3.23	16 / 460	12	1 / 100	1
	KORWiN	722,999	4.76		—		—
	Together (Partia Razem)	550,349	3.62		—		—
Regional committees
	Committee of Zbigniew Stonoga (KWW ZS)	42,731	0.28		—		—
	German Minority (Mniejszość Niemiecka, MN)	27,530	0.18	0.01	1 / 460		—
	United for Silesia (Zjednoczeni dla Śląska, ZdŚ)	18,668	0.12		—		—
	JOW Bezpartyjni	15,656	0.10		—		—
	Committee of Grzegorz Braun "God Bless You!" (Szczęść Boże!)	13,113	0.09		—		—
	Congress of the New Right (Kongres Nowej Prawicy, KNP)	4,852	0.03	1.03	—		—
	Self-Defence (Samoobrona)	4,266	0.03	0.04	—		—
	Social Movement of the Republic of Poland (Ruch Społeczny)	3,941	0.03		—		—
	Citizens to Parliament (Obywatele do Parlamentu, OdP)	1,964	0.01		—		—
	Independents (Niezależni)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	4 / 100
Total		15,200,671	100		460		100

Notes

1. United Left was running as a coalition, therefore was subject to an 8% election threshold rather than 5% for single parties.

Popular vote (Sejm) PiS   37.58% PO   24.09% K'15   8.81% .N   7.60% ZL   7.55% PSL   5.13% Others   9.25%

Parliament seats (Sejm) PiS   51.09% PO   30.00% K'15   9.13% .N   6.09% PSL   3.48% MN   0.22%

By constituency

Constituency	Turnout	PiS	PO	Kukiz'15	Modern	ZL	PSL	KORWiN	Razem	MN	Others	Lead
1 – Legnica	46.71	35.70	25.24	9.59	7.15	10.45	3.89	4.32	3.64	-	0.00	10.46
2 – Wałbrzych	44.83	31.15	32.65	8.81	6.64	8.76	3.18	4.30	3.41	-	1.09	1.50
3 – Wrocław	54.08	31.21	30.49	8.74	10.65	6.10	2.60	5.22	4.21	-	0.77	0.72
4 – Bydgoszcz	47.87	30.20	29.64	7.77	7.30	10.04	6.07	4.54	3.76	-	0.68	0.56
5 – Toruń	44.90	33.57	25.77	8.32	6.50	10.76	6.75	3.90	3.65	-	0.78	7.80
6 – Lublin	52.01	47.57	16.59	9.32	4.54	5.98	7.74	5.00	2.75	-	0.52	30.98
7 – Chełm	45.30	48.02	12.31	10.47	3.75	7.11	11.39	4.37	2.39	-	0.18	35.71
8 – Zielona Góra	44.63	28.27	28.21	8.75	9.99	10.02	5.12	4.99	3.99	-	0.65	0.06
9 – Łódź	56.74	29.90	31.28	7.24	8.99	10.48	2.70	4.78	4.63	-	0.00	1.38
10 – Piotrków Trybunalski	50.26	46.95	15.46	10.08	5.59	7.47	7.48	3.91	3.06	-	0.00	31.49
11 – Sieradz	48.47	39.93	21.18	8.92	5.32	8.18	7.86	4.10	3.54	-	0.98	18.75
12 – Chrzanów	54.46	49.05	20.42	8.67	5.79	5.33	3.03	4.45	3.26	-	0.00	28.63
13 – Kraków	58.81	38.62	24.61	7.26	9.73	6.38	2.70	6.35	3.88	-	0.48	14.01
14 – Nowy Sącz	52.18	60.56	13.95	7.83	3.69	2.55	4.16	4.31	2.13	-	0.80	46.61
15 – Tarnów	51.85	51.99	14.71	9.60	4.54	3.41	8.08	4.72	2.43	-	0.53	37.28
16 – Płock	46.22	43.78	16.44	8.41	5.15	8.14	10.66	4.07	3.35	-	0.00	27.34
17 – Radom	49.38	47.49	17.55	8.41	4.81	4.82	9.42	3.91	2.62	-	0.98	29.94
18 – Siedlce	50.56	51.10	13.55	8.36	4.63	4.35	10.23	4.35	2.66	-	0.76	37.55
19 – Warsaw I	70.80	29.89	27.54	7.76	13.39	8.55	0.72	6.18	5.54	-	0.43	2.35
20 – Warsaw II	60.00	38.80	25.12	7.22	10.01	5.66	3.80	4.81	3.85	-	0.73	13.68
21 – Opole	43.12	27.77	26.23	12.57	7.14	6.75	3.68	3.95	3.02	8.14	0.75	1.54
22 – Krosno	47.47	53.51	13.76	9.15	3.97	4.56	7.28	4.28	2.32	-	1.17	39.75
23 – Rzeszów	52.56	56.11	13.11	9.28	4.16	4.42	4.67	4.96	2.29	-	1.00	43.00
24 – Białystok	47.10	45.38	16.74	9.07	5.37	7.35	8.07	4.66	2.59	-	0.77	28.64
25 – Gdańsk	52.55	29.61	34.72	7.15	9.17	6.59	3.02	5.00	3.98	-	0.75	5.11
26 – Gdynia	51.28	31.22	33.46	8.02	8.22	6.64	3.23	4.43	4.05	-	0.75	2.24
27 – Bielsko-Biała	56.35	40.42	23.57	9.36	8.27	6.56	3.42	4.68	3.72	-	0.00	16.82
28 – Częstochowa	49.83	35.82	20.95	11.63	6.74	11.12	4.99	4.27	3.64	-	0.84	14.87
29 – Gliwice	49.12	30.51	28.99	12.19	8.90	7.21	2.50	5.09	4.15	-	0.48	1.52
30 – Rybnik	51.82	39.59	24.21	11.31	6.33	5.93	1.79	4.53	3.33	-	2.98	15.38
31 – Katowice	53.92	32.92	28.37	10.05	8.66	6.77	0.99	5.55	4.08	-	2.61	4.55
32 – Sosnowiec	51.41	29.65	25.56	10.24	8.97	13.97	2.35	4.81	4.44	-	0.00	4.09
33 – Kielce	46.82	42.81	17.25	9.41	4.98	7.87	9.51	4.14	2.80	-	1.23	25.56
34 – Elbląg	41.30	31.56	30.12	8.24	5.82	7.69	6.69	4.73	3.80	-	1.34	1.44
35 – Olsztyn	43.13	30.42	27.07	8.97	6.82	8.76	8.44	5.10	3.74	-	0.68	3.35
36 – Kalisz	47.27	31.85	24.69	7.98	7.04	8.82	10.98	4.25	3.17	-	1.23	7.16
37 – Konin	46.64	37.41	20.23	8.83	6.94	11.77	6.86	3.99	3.98	-	0.00	17.18
38 – Piła	46.07	27.26	31.02	9.01	6.98	9.15	7.66	4.07	3.92	-	0.93	3.76
39 – Poznań	60.23	23.90	35.65	6.06	14.49	8.07	1.91	4.77	4.60	-	0.55	11.75
40 – Koszalin	43.63	28.58	30.07	9.41	8.06	11.38	4.13	4.46	3.90	-	0.00	1.49
41 – Szczecin	47.27	29.09	31.93	8.42	8.66	8.56	3.88	5.33	4.12	-	0.00	2.84
Poland	50.92	37.58	24.09	8.81	7.60	7.55	5.13	4.76	3.62	0.18	0.69	13.49

Reactions

Political analysts noted that the election marked the first time in the post-communist era that a political party received enough votes to form a majority government.[32][33] BBC News suggested that Law and Justice's strategy of putting forward Szydło as its candidate for prime minister was a "winning formula" in the election. Szydło was widely perceived as being more moderate than PiS' outspoken leader, Jarosław Kaczyński. However, it also noted that Kaczyński could step into the role of prime minister after the election.[33]

According to the Associated Press, the new Sejm was the most right-wing parliament in Europe due to the absence of centre-left MPs in the chamber. All five parties in the Sejm tilted rightward on social issues. Between them, left-leaning alliances only gained 11 percent of the vote.[34]

Kopacz swiftly conceded defeat after exit polls from TVP showed PiS on its way to a majority, while Kaczyński declared victory and hailed his party's historic majority.[35] Kaczyński also paid tribute to his late brother, President Lech Kaczyński, who died in the 2010 plane crash.[30]

See also

• History of Poland (1989–present)
• List of political parties in Poland
• 2015 Polish presidential election
• 2015 Polish Constitutional Court crisis

References

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