Polish President Tory Andrzej Duda won the first round of the presidential election on Sunday. He will face his liberal rival Rafal Trzaskowski in the second round on July 12, according to the results of a poll after the polls.
Andrzej Duda won the support of 41.8% of Poles while the mayor of Warsaw was supported by 30.4% of the voters, according to this poll carried out by the IPSOS institute and published by the major Polish television channels, after the closing of polling stations.
The outgoing president welcomed his result. “I win this first round thanks to your voices in an absolutely indisputable way. The advance is huge and I am grateful to you, “he said during his election night in Lowicz (center). “The campaign will continue, we are having a very important discussion on Poland, we are asking the question of the Poland of the future,” said the outgoing president before congratulating his opponent.
Thank you all for participating in the election! Thank you for every vote for me! Thank you to the opponents for election competition. We have two weeks of talks about Poland ahead of us! It depends on us what the Poland of our dreams will be. Let’s move on! Poland doesn’t bother me!
✌️???????? pic.twitter.com/Y34lzB4Yrq– Andrzej Duda (@AndrzejDuda) June 28, 2020
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A 62.9% stake
For the liberal candidate, the second round will be “a choice between open Poland (…) and those who seek conflicts all the time”. “I will be the candidate for change,” promised Rafal Trzaskowski, whose watchword is “We have had enough.”
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“The monopoly of power never ends well,” insisted the candidate of the main opposition party, the Civic Platform. The election campaign was dominated by concerns over the state of democracy and social issues, as Poland faces its first recession since the end of communism.
The Poles moved en masse to the polling stations and the participation rate was 62.9%, according to the poll at the exit from the polls. According to an express study carried out after the announcement of this poll and published on Sunday evening by TVN television, Duda can count on 45.5% of the votes, against 44.7% for Trzaskowski, 9.9% of the Poles remaining undecided.
A poll marked by the coronavirus crisis
According to the Constitution, the Polish President has limited powers, but has inter alia a right of veto on legislative proposals. A victory for Rafal Trzaskowski would thus strike a heavy blow on the government of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), which was at the origin of a series of controversial reforms, notably in the field of justice.
According to the PiS, these changes were necessary to eliminate corruption among judges. But the opposition and European partners in Warsaw criticize these reforms, claiming that they are eroding democracy, barely three decades after the fall of communism.
Read the press review: Supported by Donald Trump, President Duda plays big this Sunday in Poland
President Donald Trump, who views the PiS administration as a key European ally, gave his blessing to Andrzej Duda. He was the first foreign leader welcomed to the White House since the start of the pandemic, just four days before the elections.
The ballot was strongly marked by the coronavirus crisis, which forced the authorities to postpone it from May to June. A new hybrid postal and conventional voting system has also been put in place to prevent new infections.
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