Polish parliamentary election, 2015

Polish parliamentary election, 2015

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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 (PM candidate) Ewa Kopacz Paweł Kukiz Party PiS PO Kukiz'15 Leader since 20 June 2015 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% Did not exist 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%
Powiats with party plurality ■ – Law and Justice ■ – Civic Platform ■ – Polish People's Party
Prime Minister before election Ewa Kopacz PO Elected Prime Minister Beata Szydło PiS

■ – Law and Justice ■ – Civic Platform

Ewa Kopacz
PO

Beata Szydło
PiS

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

The election was won by the largest opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) with 37.6% of the vote against the governing Civic Platform (PO), which achieved 24.1%. Beata Szydło succeeded Ewa Kopacz as Prime minister of Poland, and formed a one-party cabinet.

Official results, announced on 27 October, gave the conservative Law and Justice Party a majority, with 235 of 460 seats (51 percent).

It was the first European election since the Norway 1993 elections in which the two largest parties fielded a female candidate as leader, and the second election in history (also since Norway 1993) where more than three parties fielded female leadership candidates. It was also the first election in Poland since the introduction of liberal democracy in 1989 that a party won an absolute majority in parliament.

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% threshold for single parties and 8% threshold for coalitions (requirements waived for national minorities). The senate is elected using first-past-the-post voting in single-member districts. To be included on a ballot, a senate candidate must present 2,000 signatures of support from their constituents. 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).