Poland’s electoral commission finally published results from local elections held on Nov. 16 overnight on Saturday, after computer glitches had stopped the vote count and called the balloting process into question.
The delay in publishing the results prompted opposition parties to question the credibility of the vote, though Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski on Wednesday called the idea of an election rerun “complete madness.”
The official results confirmed exit poll predictions that the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) opposition of Jaroslaw Kaczynski came out narrowly in front in the vote, their first election victory since being formed nine years ago.
Law and Justice won 26.85 percent of votes cast in the regional voting, while the centrist Civic Platform, in power since 2007, won 26.36 percent.
The PSL Polish Peasants’ Party, the junior coalition partner in the center-right government, won 23.68 of the votes, with the SLD ex-communist social democrats getting under 9 percent.
Under a complex voting system, the Civic Platform ends up with the highest number of regional seats throughout Poland, winning 179 of the 555 seats on offer, ahead of PiS with 169.
LITMUS TEST
Held six months before presidential and legislative elections, the local votes were seen as an important litmus test.
Accused of poor preparations for the vote, especially concerning the computer system, all members of the electoral commission had already announced their resignation — which is set to take effect after a second round of voting scheduled for Sunday next week.
The opposition leaders of PiS and the SLD ex-communist social democrats — Kaczynski and Leszek Miller respectively — have said they would submit draft legislation to reduce the term length of those elected in the vote.
However, they stopped short of calling for a rerun of the ballot.
The Polish government has been led by Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz since late September, after former prime minister Donald Tusk resigned after being tapped to become the next European Council president.
EUROZONE PREPARATION
The nation is now preparing to join the eurozone.
Poland is obliged to join the single currency bloc as part of its 2004 EU entry deal, but has dragged its feet on the move, which would require it to amend its constitution.
More than 30 million voters were eligible to cast ballots to pick nearly 47,000 municipal and regional representatives and about 2,500 mayors.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese