Members of the electoral commission in Lodz start counting votes cast in Sunday's ballot. Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Michałowski
The Ipsos poll, commissioned by TVP, TVN24 and Polsat broadcasters, reveals a win for Law and Justice in the regional assemblies (sejmiki wojewódzkie), with the party gaining 31.5 percent on a national scale.
The centre-right Civic Platform party gained 27.3 percent, while its junior coalition partner in the Sejm lower parliamentary house, the Polish Peasants’ Party gained 17 percent.
The Democratic Left Alliance won 8.8 percent of the ballot, while the New Right, led by libertarian MEP Janusz Korwin-Mikke, gained 4.2 percent.
Still no clear choice in Poland’s cities
Sunday’s ballot also chose the next city mayors, although according to the exit poll, there will be a second round of voting in two weeks’ time in most major urban areas in Poland, including Warsaw, Gdansk, Poznan, Krakow, Katowice and Wroclaw.
The mayors of Lodz and Lublin were chosen in the first round of voting, with a win for the Civic Platform in both cities.
In Warsaw, incumbent mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (Civic Platform) won 48.8 percent of the ballot, while her main rival, Law and Justice’s Jacek Sasin won just 26 percent.
In Krakow, current mayor Jacek Majchrowski won 39.8 percent, going through to the second round against rival Marek Lasota from Law and Justice, who gained 25.9 percent.
In Poznan, independent Ryszard Grobelny won 27.3 percent and will go head-to-head with Jacek Jaskowiak from Civic Platform or Tadeusz Dziuba from Law and Justice, who both gained 21 percent in the exit poll.
Election turnout stood at 46.7 percent, the Ipsos exit poll estimates. According to the last official numbers released by the State Electoral Commission, turnout at 17.30 CET stood at 39.28 percent.
Civic Platform ‘needs to get it together’
Speaking on the results of Sunday’s poll, Parliamentary Speaker Radoslaw Sikorski said that the Civic Platform-Polish Peasants’ Party coalition had “got a good result” in the elections, although did say that Civic Platform “needs to get it together”.
“It is a success in which only believed in,” said head of the Polish Peasants’ Party, Deputy PM Janusz Piechocinski on the 17-percent result.
“Thanks from the bottom of my heart go to the candidates, their families and all the voters, who once again showed that Polish democracy works,” Piechocinski said at party HQ.
Meanwhile, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who managed a strong result in the European elections earlier this year with his New Right Congress, only mustered 4.2 percent overall.
“I’m very surprised and disappointed,” Korwin-Mikke said. “I was expecting a result along the lines of 7-8 percent.” (jb)
Source: IAR/PAP