Spontaneous jubilation broke out in Warsaw’s streets when the election day announcement came at 9 p.m. The Law and Justice Party (PiS) became the largest, but with the help of support parties, Donald Tusk and the Civic Platform can form a majority government. If the result holds, this will be the end of 8 years of the controversial politics of PiS. This is what a Polish polling station looks like. It has all the lists on one sheet and the voters can cumulate candidates they particularly like. That voting seat is for the Warsaw constituency. Photo: Radoslaw Dimitrow / news If the election day poll is correct, PiS will get 36.8 percent of the vote and 200 seats in the national assembly. The assembly has 460 seats. Tusk’s block Civic can get 31.6 percent of the vote, and 163 seats. The centrum-høgre group Den tresde veg and New left, which may enter into a coalition with Civic, have received 13 and 8.6 per cent support respectively. Record turnout There are reports of long queues at polling stations in Poland today. The two blocs have worked hard to mobilize the home sitar, and it seems to have succeeded. And this election will probably have the highest participation since the first election in Poland after communism in 1989. The vast majority cast their vote in Warsaw and in several places they ran out of ballot papers because so many people came from outside to vote. In some places there was a waiting time of up to 4 hours, and the polling station had to stay open for a long time because there were still many people queuing at 9 p.m. A DIVIDED POLAND: The liberal Borgarplattform is doing best in the West, and conservative PiS is strongest in the East. At the same time, Poland is divided between city and country and young and old. Photo: ewybory.eu Road election for Poland It was a deeply divided country that went to the polls today and a lot is at stake. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, went to the polls with promises to take Poland further in a conservative, Catholic and centralized direction. The 74-year-old is currently the country’s deputy prime minister. Opponents blame him for leading Poland in an authoritarian direction and distancing himself from the liberal democratic values of the EU. PiS also has a restrictive attitude towards homosexuality and has in practice made abortion illegal in the country. PiS has received criticism during the election campaign for using the broadcaster TV Poland to collect votes. Fuel prices have also been lowered in the last three weeks. The opposition is now relying on Donald Tusk, former prime minister and EU president, to win the election. Together with his coalition, the Borgarplattformen, he has promised to reverse Kaczynski’s policy. Earlier this month, he mobilized hundreds of thousands of government opponents into the streets in what is being called the largest ever demonstration in the Polish capital, Warsaw. Outer right wing on the flip side? The Union for Freedom and Independence, led by Slawomir Mentzen, is a new far-right party. Mentzen has been clear that PiS will need support from him if they are to manage to form a government. Mentzen traveled around in a helicopter last week in order to, as he said, pollute as much as possible. He is against immigration, taxes, the EU, and helping Ukraine. But with the polling on election day, it may look as if Mentzen’s support has eroded significantly. Tusk will have to court a centrist coalition that calls itself “The Third Way,” and the socialist party Lewica.
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Election defeat for the arch-conservatives in Poland – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
