The leader of Poland's Law and Justice party said yesterday he planned to embark immediately on talks to form a new center-right coalition government after the final count confirmed his group's election victory.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who claims a mandate to be Poland's next prime minister, also indicated that his socially conservative party would insist on taking the Justice Ministry in the new administration.
With all the ballots from Sunday's election counted, Law and Justice retained a narrow edge over its prospective partner, the Civic Platform, the State Electoral Commission said.
Law and Justice took 26.99 percent of the vote, while Civic Platform had 24.14 percent.
The final figures confirmed the battering suffered by the governing Democratic Left Alliance, which was undermined by corruption scandals and persistently high unemployment. It slumped to 11.31 percent from 41 percent in the last election four years ago.
Kaczynski said he would open coalition talks after the commission announces the distribution of parliamentary seats, which it was expected to do later yesterday.
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
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