Poland Election Yields Political Uncertainty

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.

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.