2020 Polish presidential election

The 2020 Polish presidential elections were due to be held on 10 May 2020, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On 6 May 2020 the Agreement party, which is in a governing alliance with the leading Law and Justice party and was opposed to pursuing the original election date, reached an arrangement to set a new date for the elections. The following day, the National Electoral Commission (PKW) declared that the election would not be able to take place on 10 May 2020. On 3 June 2020, the Marshal of the Sejm, Elżbieta Witek, ordered the first round of the election to be held on 28 June 2020 and scheduled the second round, should it be necessary, on 12 July 2020.[1][2]

2020 Polish presidential election
28 June 2020
 
Nominee Andrzej Duda Rafał Trzaskowski Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz
Party Independent[lower-alpha 1] Civic Platform Polish People's Party
Alliance United Right Civic Coalition Polish Coalition
 
Nominee Robert Biedroń Krzysztof Bosak Szymon Hołownia
Party Spring National Movement Independent
Alliance The Left Confederation Liberty and Independence
Incumbent President

Andrzej Duda
Independent

The conservative incumbent president Andrzej Duda is eligible for reelection.[3]

Electoral system

The President of Poland is directly elected using a two-round system for a five-year term, with a two-term limit. Andrzej Duda's first term will expire on 6 August 2020 when the president-elect takes their oath of office before the National Assembly, a joint session of the Sejm and Senate.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Constitution, the president must be elected by an absolute majority of valid votes. If no candidate succeeds in passing this threshold in the first round, a second round of voting is held with the two candidates who received the largest shares of the vote.

In order to be registered to contest the election, a candidate must be a Polish citizen, be at least 35 years old on the day of the first round of the election, and have collected at least 100,000 voters' signatures by 10 June 2020 at midnight.[4]

COVID-19, election timing, and controversy
See also: COVID-19 pandemic in Poland and Impact of the 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic on politics

The elections were originally scheduled for 10 May 2020, which caused extreme political controversy related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many candidates,[5] constitutionalists,[6] and even politicians from the ruling coalition[7] criticized the government's plan of holding the election as originally scheduled during the pandemic. As a compromise, the political party Agreement proposed lengthening the president's term by 2 years, which was supported by the Minister of Health, Łukasz Szumowski.[8] This was however rejected by the opposition. The main opposition party, Civic Platform, wanted the election to be held in May 2021.[9] The ruling, conservative party Law and Justice, also wished to change the electoral rules[10] and to organize the elections by postal voting only. Changing elections rules in a shorter period of time than 6 months before voting was ruled to be unconstitutional by Constitutional Tribunal in 2011.[11] Voting only by post is considered unconstitutional by some including Polish Supreme Court in a non binding opinion.[12][13][14]

Email requests by Poczta Polska for private data

At 02:26 early in the morning[15][16] on 23 April, every Polish mayor and city council president[17][18] received an anonymous, unsigned[19] e-mail from Poczta Polska (Polish Post) saying that they were required to deliver the private data of 30 million Polish citizens including their PESEL (national identification number), date of birth, address, and other private data in a .txt file format lacking any passwords or security.[20] Many Polish mayors and city council presidents,[21] lawyers, and other citizens[22] criticized the order to provide such private data, stating that the order violated the GDPR and Polish Law, since the legal act referred to in the email had no legal validity; it concerned a bill that was still undergoing legislative procedures. Citizens and other officials stated their intention to file a lawsuit[15][16][17] to the prosecutor's office about the possibility of crimes being committed by the government-run Poczta Polska and by the politicians responsible for the regulation.[17]

Electoral cards leakage

On 29 April 2020, 11 days before the planned election date, election candidate Stanisław Żółtek presented a copy of an electoral ballot at a press conference.[23][24] The copies contained the names of all the candidates and other forms to be filled by voters. Żółtek said that he received the ballots from workers of one of the companies that was printing and preparing electoral documents. Poczta Polska notified the Internal Security Agency about the leak. As of 2 May 2020, Polish law did not authorise Poczta Polska to organise postal voting except in a small number of special cases.[23]

Presidential Election Boycott

On 30 April 2020, nine former Polish Presidents and Prime Ministers called for a boycott of 2020 Presidential Elections, on the grounds that the election would be unconstitutional and could not guarantee the confidentiality of voters.[25][26]

Election Day Moved

On 6 May, Jarosław Gowin, the leader of Agreement, and Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Law and Justice struck an agreement to move the elections.[27] The two parties had earlier been engaged in a political struggle over whether the elections should proceed in May.[28]

On 7 May, the Sejm approved legislation for the election to be held via postal ballot.[29] That same day, PKW announced that "The current legal regulation deprived the National Electoral Commission of the instruments necessary to perform its duties. In connection with the above, the National Electoral Commission informs voters, election committees, candidates, election administration and local government units that voting on May 10, 2020 cannot take place."

The movement of the election day was met with support[30][31] and opposition[32][33] from both the "anti" and "pro" Law and Justice spheres of Polish politics. An opinion poll for Rzeczpospolita, gauged public support for the Gowin-Kaczyński agreement at 43.5%, with 36.3% being against, and the rest undecided.[34]

Candidate selection

The following candidates have been nominated by parties represented in the Sejm.

Law and Justice / United Right

Incumbent President Andrzej Duda is eligible to run for a second term. On 24 October 2019, in an open letter to the elected members of the Sejm and Senate, PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński announced that the party will strongly support Andrzej Duda in next year's presidential election.[35]

Nominee:

Law and Justice[lower-alpha 1]

Andrzej Duda
President of Poland
(2015–)
Member of European Parliament
(2014–2015)
Member of the Sejm
(2011–2014)

Civic Platform / Civic Coalition

Donald Tusk was widely expected to make a comeback in Polish politics and to run for President, all the more so given that his European office expired at the end of 2019.[36][37] However, in November 2019, he announced he would not run for the Polish Presidency, citing that he has “a bag of difficult, unpopular decisions since prime minister” that would burden his candidacy. He is said to have been advised against a run by private opinion polls. He decided to run instead for the leadership of the European People's Party.[38] As a result, party leader Grzegorz Schetyna decided to hold a convention in order to nominate a candidate for president. The primary was won by Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska.[39][40]

Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska resigned her candidacy on May 15, 2020, most likely as a result of falling poll numbers.[41][42] After this Rafał Trzaskowski became the new candidate of the Civic Coalition.[43] He managed to receive over 1.6 million signatures, securing his eligibility to run in the election.[44] Since launching his campaign, his poll numbers have been trending upwards, and most have him challenging the incumbent Duda in the second round.

Nominee:

Civic Platform

Rafał Trzaskowski
Mayor of Warsaw
(2018-)
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
(2014-2015)
Minister of Administration and Digitization
(2013-2014)

Ran, but resigned before the election

Declared, but lost at the primary convention:

Declined:

Polish Coalition

In December 2019, PSL chairman Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced that he will be launching a campaign for president.[49]

Polish People's Party

Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz
Member of the Sejm
(2015–)
Minister of Labour and Social Policy
(2011–2015)

Declined

The Left

At the beginning of January 2020, Włodzimierz Czarzasty said that The Left will nominate Robert Biedroń.[51]

Spring

Robert Biedroń
Member of European Parliament
(2019–)
Mayor of Słupsk
(2014–2018)
Member of the Sejm
(2011–2014)

Declined

Confederation Liberty and Independence

The party held an open primary, a first in Polish politics. The 2019–20 Confederation presidential primary is modeled on the US style, with various rounds. Krzysztof Bosak was nominated during the final round of voting held at the convention in Warsaw on 18 January.

Nominee:

National Movement

Krzysztof Bosak
Member of the Sejm
(2005–2007, 2019–)

Declared, but lost in the primary election: [53]

Other candidates

These are candidates who collected the neccesary 100,000 signatures supporting their candidacy to run, but are not supported by parties currently in the Sejm:

Rejected candidates

These following candidates failed to submit 100,000 signatures supporting their run by the March 26th deadline:

  • Zbigniew Adamczyk – Chairman of the Slavic Union
  • Piotr Bakun – Economist
  • Adam Bednarczyk – Activist in the Polish Nation Organization – Polish League
  • Marcin Bugajski – Political scientist
  • Roland Dubowski – President of the Association of Heirs of Polish War Veterans of the Second World War
  • Jolanta Duda – Businesswoman
  • Artur Głowacki – Businessman
  • Sławomir Grzywa – Leader of "Sami Swoi" ("All Good Friends")
  • Krzysztof Kononowicz – YouTuber
  • Maria Leśniak-Wojciechowska – Political activist
  • Wiesław Lewicki – Chairman of "Normalny Kraj" ("Normal Country")
  • Dariusz Łaska – Political activist
  • Łukasz Malczyk – Chairman of the Union of Polish Entrepreneurs
  • Wojciech Mateńka – Candidate of "Patriotic Poland"
  • Andrzej Olszewski – Political activist
  • Marek Olszewski – Candidate of the ROP
  • Bogdan Pawłowski – Businessman
  • Andrzej Dariusz Placzyński – Businessman
  • Wojciech Podjacki – Chairman of the "League of Defense of Sovereignty"
  • Jan Zbigniew Potocki – Self-declared President
  • Kajetan Pyrzyński – Pensioner rights activist
  • Leszek Samborski – Former Member of the Sejm
  • Grzegorz Sowa – Businessman associated with 1Polska.pl
  • Romuald Starosielec – Journalist supported by "Unity of the Nation"
  • Paweł Świtoń – Businessman
  • Krzysztof Urbanowicz – Political activist
  • Andrzej Voigt – Businessman
  • Jerzy Walkowiak – Political activist
  • Zbigniew Wesołowski – Leader of the "World Movement of Poles and Polonia"
  • Piotr Wroński – Colonel in the Agencja Wywiadu

Political debates
  • Newsweek – 15 June 2020 (cancelled)
  • TVP Info – 17 June 2020, 21:00; moderated by Michał Adamczyk.
  • TVN24 – 19 June 2020 (cancelled)
  • Polsat News – 22 June 2020 (cancelled)
  • Onet – 24 June 2020

Opinion polls
Main article: Opinion polling for the 2020 Polish presidential election

First round
Polling averages for the first round of the 2020 Polish presidential election as of 24 June 2020

Results

Notes
    1. The President of Poland traditionally resigns from party membership after taking office. Although Duda is officially an independent, his campaign is endorsed and funded by Law and Justice.

    References
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