Last week
of the campaign was hot. On Monday evening two would-be prime ministers clashed
in a TV debate, lacklustre, full of trotted out catchwords, hackneyed promises
and hollow words. The other day TV stations hosted a debate of eight party
leaders. That show’s value added was much higher and probably substantive,
appealing appearances of small party leaders (Mr Petru, Mr Zandberg) took some
support off the largest parties and helped smaller grouping garner more votes.
Nevertheless the Tuesday’s debate laid bare how embarrassing Mrs Kopacz and Mrs
Szydło are and how leaders of other parties stand out. I suppose the debate
convinced many voters the times of choice between PO and PiS only should be
over and a breath of fresh air is essential to unfreeze Polish political arena.
Today I
turned up to the polling station in NI just after 9:00 a.m. I have a habit of
going to vote possibly early, but never, ever have I seen such turnout. Clement
weather and clocks going backward a few hours earlier could have contributed to
high number of citizens casting votes. Media reported numerous queues in
polling stations, while official figures by PKW showed the turnout at midday
was anything but impressive, but at 5:00 p.m. up-to-the-mark with commendably
high number of voters visiting polling stations in big cities. Such facts
theoretically should not augur well for PiS…
Needless to
say ban for publishing part results of the elections in the era of the Internet
is ludicrous. Disguised results, varying from one to another, were disturbing,
most showing swingeing lead of PiS (allowing them to form a government without
having to look for a coalitional partner) and distressingly high score of Kukiz
’15.
Preliminary
results show 4 parties will definitely make it to the parliament, PSL is
balancing near 5% threshold, Kukiz is unlikely to get a double-digit score and…
PiS will get what they were fighting for – simple majority in the parliament. They
managed to attain what was unattainable even for PO at the height of its
popularity. Fortunately, along with Kukiz, they are short of some 20 deputies
to change the constitution.
I congratulate
the winners and wish they run Poland well. We have to respect the citizen’s
will. Let’s give them a chance.
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