Poland’s incumbent Andrzej Duda has won the presidential election, results from over 99 percent of polling stations show, with remaining uncounted votes unlikely to sway the final outcome, the National Electoral Commission said on Monday.
DUDA RECEIVED 51.21 PERCENTOF THE VOTE
Duda, an ally of Poland’s ruling nationalists, is expected to help the Law and Justice (PiS) party continue its reforms of the judiciary, which have been criticised by the European Union, and generous social spending programmes.
According to the latest results, Duda received 51.21 percentof the vote, while opposition candidate Rafal Trzaskowski got 48.79 percent of the vote. The difference in votes between the candidates amounted to around 500,000.
“I don’t want to speak on behalf of the campaign staff, but I think that this difference is large enough that we have to accept the result,” Grzegorz Schetyna, the former head of Poland’s opposition Civic Platform (PO) grouping and member of parliament told private broadcaster TVN24 on Monday.
Poles voted with almost record turnout, reported at 68.12 percent by the commission.