The 2016 Democratic Left Alliance leadership election was held in January 2016 to elect the leader of the Democratic Left Alliance. Włodzimierz Czarzasty was elected as the new leader of the party, defeating Jerzy Wenderlich by a margin of 17%. Following the election, the party began a process of transformation into the New Left party together with Robert Biedroń's Spring.
Procedure The leadership election took place on 16 January (10:00 to 15:00 CET) with a runoff on 23 January 2016. In the first round, all party members were eligible to vote, and turnout reached almost 63%. The second round was held at the Party Congress, where 733 cast their vote.
Background The election took place after the poor showing of the party in the 2015 presidential election, where its candidate, Magdalena Ogórek, came fifth with 2.38% of the vote, and the defeat of the party with its electoral alliance in the 2015 parliamentary election, where the alliance fell under the 8% threshold, losing all of its seats. The incumbent leader, Leszek Miller, did not stand for re-election following the defeat. The defeat also caused turmoil within the party, with a group in the party (politicians such as Krzysztof Gawkowski, Dariusz Joński, Marek Balt, Tomasz Trela) calling for Miller's resignation from politics.
Candidates Candidates in the second round Candidate Born Political office Warsaw, Poland Member of the National Broadcasting Council Toruń, Poland Deputy Marshal of the Sejm Member of the Sejm
Results Party leader Candidate 1st round 2nd round Vote % Vote % Włodzimierz Czarzasty 5,541 37.97 428 58.39 Jerzy Wenderlich 3,619 24.80 305 41.61 Krzysztof Gawkowski 3,294 22.57 Eliminated Zbyszek Zaborowski 837 5.74 Eliminated Joanna Senyszyn 417 2.86 Eliminated Michał Huzarski 385 2.64 Eliminated Tomasz Nesterowicz 253 1.73 Eliminated Dariusz Szczotkowski 134 0.92 Eliminated Adam Kępiński 77 0.53 Eliminated Piotr Rączkowski 35 0.24 Eliminated Total 14,592 100.00 733 100.00 Source: Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, Polish Press Agency
Aftermath Following the election, the party began a process of transformation into the broader Left alliance and later the New Left party together with the Spring party of Robert Biedroń. In 2019, the SLD returned to the Sejm, earning 4.7% of the vote and 23 seats as part of the Left alliance, which got 12.6% of the vote and 49 seats.
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