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Poland Presidential Election Likely Heading to Courts

Jamie Dettmer

   Poland's incumbent President Andrzej Duda, a social conservative
   aligned with the ruling populist Law and Justice Party (PiS), secured a
   second term in office Sunday with a narrow margin of victory after an
   ill-tempered, mudslinging presidential race.
   His challenger's supporters said they plan to contest the election
   result in Poland's courts, a legal tussle likely to worsen the bitter
   polarization of the country.
   After a tight runoff race, Duda won 51.21% of the vote, while his
   opponent, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski of the liberal Civic Platform
   Party, took 48.79%. The preliminary result was declared with 99.97% of
   polling stations reporting. The electoral commission said the votes yet
   to be counted will not materially affect Duda's overall win.
   The incumbent's secured reelection was the slimmest victory margin for
   any presidential victor since the end of communism in 1989.
   "I think there will certainly be electoral protests, and I think the
   whole issue will end up in the Supreme Court," political scientist Anna
   Materska-Sosnowska told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
   Duda's political opponents claimed voting "irregularities" in polling
   stations and said many Poles living overseas did not receive ballots in
   time to vote.

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