Bronisław Komorowski of governing Civic Platform party trails rival Andrzej Duda by six percentage points ahead of official result

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Poland’s president, Bronisław Komorowski, has conceded defeat in the country’s presidential election after an exit poll shows him trailing his rival Andrzej Duda by six percentage points.

If the results are borne out, Poland will replace its conservative head of state with the more rightwing and previously little-known Law and Justice party candidate.

“I respect your choice, I wish my challenger a successful presidency,” Komorowski told a gathering of supporters minutes after the exit poll announcement on Sunday.

The result of Sunday’s vote will send a stark message to the government of prime minister Ewa Kopacz, an ally of Komorowski, who faces a tight re-election battle against the conservative opposition later this year.

It is also a major defeat for Civic Platform, the pro-market and pro-European party that has governed Poland for eight years.

While the official results are not expected until late on Monday, the Ipsos exit poll, which was reported by the public broadcaster TVN, showed Komorowski on 47% and Duda on 53%. It has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.



The poll was delayed after a woman died at a polling station, forcing it to close. Under Polish law, the station was obliged to stay open late to allow people time to vote and exit polls can only be released once all stations have closed.



In his five years in office, the 62-year-old Komorowski has been popular and was expected to be re-elected with ease. Civic Platform has overseen an unprecedented period of economic success.

But many Poles have felt that the benefits of that growth have been reaped by only a small minority of people, with low wages and job insecurity still motivating many to seek a better life abroad.

Most people “have not benefited from the economic change”, said Marcin Wolski, a well-known satirist, at Law and Justice’s election night gathering in Warsaw. “Poland needs change and Duda is the sign of the change that Poland needs.”

Wolski praised the party’s strong attachment to “Catholicism and traditional and historical values that matter to Poles”.

Komorowski narrowly lost in the first round of voting to Duda, a 43-year-old lawyer and an MEP.



Polls in recent days had shown the race as being too close to call.

Although both are conservative, the Civic Platform party has a more liberal stance on some issues. Duda has called for higher taxes on banks and large supermarket chains, which are mainly foreign-owned, and wants Poland to retake control of the banks.

