Competing Parties in Poland Claim Election Victory With Final Results Still to Come

WARSAW — Poland faced a period of political uncertainty Monday after Poles voted in huge numbers in an election in which opposition parties appeared to gain a combined majority. But the ruling nationalist conservative party won more votes than any single party and said it would try to keep governing.

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The final results have not yet been reported by the state electoral commission. But the polling agency Ipsos released a so-called late exit poll on Monday morning, which combines the results of an exit poll carried out during Sunday’s election and 50% of the votes counted.

It showed that the ruling nationalist conservative Law and Justice party with 36.6% of the votes cast, the opposition Civic Coalition led by Donald Tusk with 31%, the centrist Third Way coalition with 13.5%, the Left party with 8.6% and the far-right Confederation with 6.4%.

In order for a government to pass laws, it needs at least 231 seats in the 460-lower house of parliament, the Sejm.

According to Ipsos, the ruling Law and Justice party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski appeared to have obtained 198 seats, a sharp fall from the current slim majority it has held for the past eight years. Even with the far-right Confederation party it would not have a majority.

Still, the party’s campaign manager, Joachim Brudzinski, said Monday morning in an interview on the RMF FM radio broadcaster said that his party won and would try to build a government led by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

The exit poll showed 248 seats, meaning a majority in parliament, going to Civic Coalition, Third Way and the Left together.

The electoral commission has said it expected report the final result by early Tuesday.