Election results give PiS most seats, but short of majorityElection results give PiS most seats, but short of majority

Official results for Poland’s general election show that the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party got the most votes, but may struggle to remain in power owing to the lack of a majority.

Following the completion of vote counting in 100 percent of electoral districts on Tuesday morning, the National Electoral Commission announced that PiS garnered 35.38 percent of the vote, which will give it 194 seats in the 460-seat Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament.

This means that it is short of the 231 seats required for a parliamentary majority, which opens the door to the opposition to form a government.

PiS’s main contender, the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), led by the Civic Platform (PO) party, won 30.70 percent of the vote, and gets 157 seats.

Two smaller parties, which are KO’s potential allies, the Third Way and the New Left got 14.40 and 8.61 percent of the vote winning 65 and 26 seats, respectively.

This gives the three opposition parties, which have vowed to cooperate and to try to form a coalition government, a combined total of 53.71 percent and 248 seats.

The far-right Confederation which came on 7.16 percent will have 18 seats.

The election also saw a record turnout of 74.38 percent, the highest in Poland since 1919, and even higher than that of the first free elections after the fall of communism in 1989 when it hit 62.70 percent.

Poland’s opposition wins Senate elections

Civic Coalition (KO), the largest opposition grouping, won the most seats in the Senate, the upper house of the Polish parliament, in Poland’s general election, helping put opposition parties well in control of the house.

KO won 41, the Third Way 11 and the New Left nine, the National Electoral Commission announced on Tuesday. The governing Law and Justice party won 34 seats.

Five seats in the upper house were also won by independents who agreed to work with the current opposition.

The chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Sylwester Marciniak, said that 100 senators were elected to the house.

mk, PAP