Presidential Election in Poland
Acting President Bronisław Komorowski of the governing Civic Platform (PO) party won the first round of Poland's presidential election on June 20, but failed to win the 50% required to avoid a runoff.
Komorowski took 41.22%, besting his nearest rival, Law and Justice (PiS) party president Jarosław Kaczyński, by 4.5%. Kaczyński is former prime minister and twin brother of late president Lech Kaczyński, who died in a plane crash on April 10. His brother's death allowed Kaczyński to benefit from a sympathy vote that boosted his poll numbers significantly in the last month. Grzegorz Napieralski, nominee of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), took third place with 13.68 percent. Napieralski did better than expected: He was polling around 5% in May and support for the SLD among sure voters has not risen above 9% over the past two years. Komorowski is tipped to win the second round on July 4, since Napieralski's left-wing supporters probably prefer him to the arch-conservative Kaczyński.
Csaba Molnar
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