WARSAW, June 29 — Conservative incumbent Andrzej Duda has secured pole position in Poland’s presidential election and will face Warsaw’s liberal mayor in the run-off next month, official results showed today.
Duda, who is backed by the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party, got 43.7 per cent of the ballot with over 99 per cent of polling stations counted, according to the national election commission.
Runner-up Rafal Trzaskowski had 30.3 per cent, taking the Civic Platform (PO) party member into round two of the election on July 12.
Independent candidate Rafal Holownia came in third with 13.9 per cent. None of the other eight candidates topped 10 per cent.
Turnout was 64.4 per cent.
The commission said it will release the final results early tomorrow at the latest.
The electoral campaign was dominated by concerns over an erosion of democratic rights and bread and butter economic issues. Poland faces its first recession since the end of communism because of the coronavirus pandemic fallout.
The election was scheduled to be held in May but had to be postponed because of the virus outbreak. — AFP
