Warsaw, July 5 (IANS) Acting president Bronislaw Komorowski has been elected as the new president of Poland. He defeated Jaroslaw Kaczynski by a narrow margin in the second round of elections, which took place Sunday.
According to an exit poll, Komorowski got around 52 percent vote whereas Kaczynski got around 48 percent. The final official results will be announced Monday afternoon according to the Polish Election Commission.
The presidential election was preponed after President Lech Kaczynski died in an air crash April 10 in Russia. His wife Maria and 96 other top Polish officials also perished in the crash.
Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw tried to cash in on the sympathy vote to challenge Komorowski and managed to get around 36 percent in the first round. This enabled him to challenge Komorowski, who could not clear the threshold of fifty percent.
The two candidates fought a bitter election and divided the Polish nation between the Centrist forces led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the ultra-rightist forces led by Kaczynski.
The Polish Church, it seems, supported the ultra-rightist forces in the two rounds of election.
Komorowski’s election will help the ruling alliance consolidate its position, both domestically and externally, as Kaczynski has been regarded as hostile to economic reforms and Polish relations with the European Union.
