Mon 13 July 2020:
Poland’s incumbent President Andrzej Duda has won the presidential elections with a narrow margin, securing another five-year in office, according to official results announced on Monday.
Duda, aligned with the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, bagged 51.2% of the votes, while Rafal Trzaskowski from the main opposition center-right Civic Platform party secured 48.7%, the National Electoral Commission (PKW) announced with 99.97% of the votes counted.
Duda had campaigned on traditional values and social spending in the mostly Catholic country as he fought for a second five-year term. His victory could have profound implications for Poland’s relationship with the EU.
Trzaskowski, a former European Parliament lawmaker who joined the race relatively late, opposes Duda’s denigration of urban liberals, the LGBTQ community and other minorities, and aims to counter an erosion of democratic rights under the ruling party. He represented the centrist opposition Civic Platform party that was in power in from 2007 to 2015.
“All we need is to count the votes. The night will be tense, but I am certain that when the votes are counted, we will win,” Trzaskowski told supporters in a park outside Warsaw’s old town just after the exit poll.
The governing party and Duda have won popularity through a welfare programme that improved the lives of many impoverished families with children and retirees, especially in rural areas and small towns, and also through their championing of Poland’s traditional Roman Catholic values.
The voter turnout for Sunday’s election was recorded at 68.9%, highest in any national election since the first freely held elections in 1989.
Voters in Poland headed to the polls on Sunday for the second round of the presidential elections as no candidate secured more than 50% of the votes in the first round held on June 28.
Due to the pandemic, voting was held under strict sanitary regulations. Poland has registered more than 37,000 cases of COVID-19 and almost 1,600 deaths.
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