Komorowski Wins Polish Presidency, Kaczynski Concedes
HIillary Heuler | Warsaw 05 July 2010
Results from Poland's presidential election Sunday indicate center-right candidate Bronislaw Komorowski has defeated conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Mr. Kaczynski conceded Sunday night as his opponent, Speaker of the Parliament and acting President Bronislaw Komorowski pulled ahead in the vote count. Later, the official tally gave Mr. Kaczynski 47 percent of the vote, and Mr. Komorowski 53 percent.
Mr. Kaczynski and Mr. Komorowski went head-to-head in a second round of elections, after a first round on June 20 gave none of 10 candidates a majority. Mr. Kaczynski was running for the far-right Law and Justice party, while Mr. Komorowski represented the ruling center-right Civic Platform party.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters in Warsaw, Mr. Kaczynski said that they must continue to try to change Poland, and urged support for his party in the upcoming general elections.
Mr. Kaczynski had been running in the place of his twin brother, the late Polish president Lech Kaczynski, who was killed along with 95 others in a plane crash in April outside the Russian town of Smolensk. Jaroslaw Kaczynski enjoyed a surge of support after the crash, and analysts had predicted that the runoff election would be close.
In a speech Sunday night, Mr. Komorowski hailed the fact that the results were so close, calling it a triumph for democracy of which Poland should be proud.
A win for Mr. Komorowski means that the Civic Platform party will now control both the Parliament and the presidency, a situation that could usher in a rare period of political calm for Poland.
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