The opposition coalition appears to be making strong progress in the election according to polling station surveys.
– I am the happiest man on earth. The cruel time is over, the time of the Law and Justice party is over, says opposition leader Donald Tusk.
Donald Tusk, who leads the coalition, says according to international agencies that they have received enough votes to reach their own majority and that “democracy has won, Poland has won”.
Poland’s current governing party, Law and Justice, still looks set to get the most votes in today’s parliamentary elections, but will not get its own majority.
According to polling station surveys, the opposition Citizens’ Coalition will get roughly 240 of the parliament’s 460 seats, which would mean that the unifying party leader Tusk would have the opportunity to form a government.
The ruling Law and Justice receives almost 37 percent of the votes and becomes the single largest party. But it gets, according to initial calculations, around 200 seats in the parliament.
– This means that Poland is turning towards the EU, says Polish expert and author Peter Johnsson in Warsaw.
He also points out that, if the election results are correct, Poland will change direction on issues related to women’s rights and party control of the legal system.
The largest in the opposition bloc, the Citizens’ Coalition, is the Citizens’ Platform party, which is led by former Prime Minister and President of the European Council Donald Tusk. The alliance, which is EU-friendly and liberal, also includes the Greens and some smaller parties.
The far-right party Confederation looks set to get around 6 percent of the vote in the election.