Liberal leader leads Polish vote
POLAND: Liberal Bronislaw Komorowski scored 51.32 percent of votes
with returns from 80.4 percent of polling stations counted in Poland’s
snap presidential ballot, the state election commission said Monday.
Ex-Prime Minister and conservative challenger Jaroslaw Kaczynski took
48.68 percent support, according to the partial unofficial results made
public early Monday by Stefan Jaworski, head of Poland’s state election
commission.
Earlier results from 51.5 percent of polling stations had briefly put
Kaczynski in the lead with 50.41 percent.
An unofficial exit poll made public by Poland’s TVP state broadcaster
gave Komorowski 53.1 percent of the vote to 46.9 percent for Kaczynski,
the twin of the late president Lech Kaczynski whose April 10 air crash
death in Russia sparked the snap presidential ballot.
Kaczynski had conceded defeat and congratulated Komorowski upon
hearing the unofficial exit poll Sunday night.
“I congratulate the winner. I congratulate Bronislaw Komorowski,” the
eurosceptic Kaczynski said in a speech at his Warsaw headquarters, as
supporters gasped when the figures were revealed the moment voting
ended.
President Lech Kaczynski died April 10 when his jet crashed in
Smolensk, western Russia as it landed for a World War II commemoration.
A total of 96 people died, among them his wife, senior politicians and
military top brass.
A run-off between Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Komorowski — who as
parliamentary speaker became acting President after the crash — was held
after neither won more than 50 percent in a first round of voting two
weeks ago.
At Komorowski’s Warsaw base, supporters chanted a traditional song
urging him to live to 100. “The ballots are being counted. We’re opening
a small bottle of champagne today, and we’ll open a big one tomorrow,”
said Komorowski.
Official results are due Monday for the former communist nation of 38
million people, which was left reeling from the crash and then battered
in May and June by the worst floods in decades.
The run-off between the hardball Kaczynski, 61, and soft-spoken
Komorowski, 58, marked the latest chapter in a bitter power struggle
between their parties.
“Divisions are an inseparable part of democracy,” said Komorowski.
“But we have work to do to ensure these divisions don’t prevent
cooperation”.
Both sides had campaigned to the wire.
Warsaw, AFP |
