Second round of polls to decide future Polish president

The Polish presidential elections will run to a second round, pitting conservativenationalist Andrzej Duda against current President Bronislaw Komorowski, according to exit polls after the first round.

The polls suggest no candidate will receive more than 50 percent of the votes in Sunday’s election, paving the way for a second round on May 24 between Duda and Komorowski, the exit polls’ two most preferred candidates.

A survey conducted by the Ipsos Institute for private television channel TVN24 and other local media suggests that Duda will secure 34.8 percent of the votes in the first round, followed by the Civic Platform party’s Komorowski with 32.2 percent.

The result contrasts surveys conducted in the runup to the elections, which favored Komorowski, 62, who became president in 2010 after the death of President Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash in Smolensk, Russia.

Komorowski said “the result of the exit poll is a serious warning for the entire team in power.”

“We should listen to the voters, because it’s evidently necessary to mobilize all rational forces in Poland,” he added.

Polls conducted during the electoral campaign suggest Komorowski will win in the second round.

However, the apparent winner of this round, 42yearold Duda, is already campaigning for the next, saying he will work to achieve “a dignified life in a safe Poland, which needs attention in many areas.”

This is the first time since 2005 that Duda’s opposition Law and Justice party, which has a stronghold in rural and underdeveloped eastern Poland, has enjoyed an electoral advantage over the Civic Platform party in the race for the presidency.