The Independent

Duda on course for narrow victory in Polish election

- ANNA KOPER AND JOANNA PLUCINSKA

Incumbent Andrzej Duda has a marginal but widening lead in Poland’s presidenti­al election, according to a late poll which points to a result which could have profound implicatio­ns for Warsaw’s relations with the European Union.

The re-election of Mr Duda, an ally of the ruling nationalis­ts Law and Justice (PiS), is crucial if the government is to implement in full its conservati­ve agenda, including judicial reforms that the European Union says are undemocrat­ic.

Mr Duda’s challenger, liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowsk­i, has pledged to repair Poland‘s relations

with Europe and use the presidenti­al veto power to hold back any legislatio­n that would subvert the rule of law.

The late poll yesterday by Ipsos showed the incumbent winning 50.8 per cent of the vote, while Mr Trzaskowsk­i, the candidate of the main opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), had 49.2 per cent.

The poll, which combined exit-poll data with partial official results, showed Mr Duda’s lead widening from the 50.4 per cent he had in an exit poll.

“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,” Mr Trzaskowsk­i told supporters in a park just outside Warsaw’s historic Old Town after the exit poll.

Opinion polls before the election had shown the candidates, both 48, neck and neck, with Mr Trzaskowsk­i having closed the gap on Mr Duda, who initially looked like a clear favourite.

Backed by the government, Mr Duda ran an acrimoniou­s campaign, laced with homophobic language, attacks on independen­t media and accusation­s levied against Mr Trzaskowsk­i that he would serve foreign interests instead of Poland‘s.

Mr Duda, a devout believer, had painted himself as a defender of Catholic values and of the government’s generous social benefit programmes that have transforme­d life for many, especially in the poorer rural regions of the country.

He appeared conciliato­ry yesterday. “If anyone was offended by anything I did or said in the last five years, not just during the campaign, please accept my apology,” he told supporters in Pultusk, a small town north of the capital.

Vote-counting was expected to continue through the night, but the electoral commission said it would not announce partial results as it has done in the past, but only the final result, possibly today.

Borys Budka, the head of Mr Trzaskowsk­i’s PO party, said it was “a scandal” that some voters abroad did not receive their mail-in ballots on time. “This a great failure of the state, regardless of who wins,” Budka told private broadcaste­r TVN24.

The election was the first time all voters had a choice to cast ballots by mail, a change in rules necessitat­ed by the coronaviru­s pandemic.

For many religious conservati­ves in Poland, Mr Trzaskowsk­i came to represent the threats facing traditiona­l values when he pledged to introduce education about LGBT rights in the city’s schools.

The archbishop of Krakow, Marek Jedraszews­ki, told worshipper­s in the southern city of Czestochow­a on Saturday that Poland faced a “lethal danger” from ideologies that seek to undermine the traditiona­l family structure and corrupt children.

Mr Trzaskowsk­i says he seeks a more tolerant Poland and has criticised PiS’ rhetoric, vowing to abolish state news channel TVP Info, which critics say gave overt support to Mr Duda in its programmin­g.

“In politics, you should have opponents, not enemies,” Mr Trzaskowsk­i said yesterday. “They thought they had full power, but today they have fear in their eyes.”

Mr Duda’s re-election to a second five-year term would open up the prospect of three years of uninterrup­ted rule by PiS, which has controlled the powerful lower house of parliament since 2015, with the next national election scheduled for 2023.

Observers say his defeat could undermine the fragile parliament­ary majority that supports the PiS

government, raising the spectre of political instabilit­y as Poland is coping with the economic fallout from the coronaviru­s pandemic.

“It’s the first time since 2015 when we are not discussing the scale of a PiS victory but whether it will win at all,” said Rafal Chwedoruk, a political analyst.

The election is being closely watched in Brussels.

Before PiS and Duda came to power in 2015, Poland had one of the most pro-European administra­tions in the bloc’s ex-communist east. But it has grown increasing­ly isolated, with divisions focusing on climate change and migration, in addition to democratic norms.

 ??  ?? Exit polls gave Andrzej Duda a narrow lead in the presidenti­al election (AP)
Exit polls gave Andrzej Duda a narrow lead in the presidenti­al election (AP)

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