Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has topped the first round of voting but must still go into a run-off vote in the presidential election.
The conservative Mr Duda will face the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, in the second-round vote in two weeks’ time.
With more than 99% of results in, Mr Duda took just under 44% of the vote and Mr Trzaskowski just over 30%.
Turnout was high despite coronavirus and social-distancing restrictions.
President Duda is an ally of the governing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party and if he loses, the opposition could push through major changes in Polish politics.
The president has the power to veto legislation, so Mr Duda’s re-election would be of benefit to PiS, of which he used to be a member.
He came under fire during the election, including for a speech in which he said LGBT rights were an “ideology” more destructive than communism.
After the results came through on Monday, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) criticised the conduct of the campaign.
State broadcaster TVP “served as campaign tool for the incumbent”, its statement read, and some of its reporting was “charged with xenophobic and anti-Semitic undertones”. It failed in its remit to be impartial, depicting Mr Trzaskowski as “a threat to Polish values and national interests”.
Source: bbc.com
The post Poland presidential election heads for second round appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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