Centre-right heads for power in Poland

Exit polls show a shift to the right in Polish politics as the conservative and liberal parties ousted the left in Sunday’s general election.

The polls put Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) in the lead at about 28 per cent of the vote, followed by its liberal ally Civic Platform (PO) who took 24 per cent. 

The two centre-right parties have promised tax cuts and root our graft, but the coalition will have its work cut out instilling trust in a nation where politicians are held in great suspicion.

Voters were said to have rejected the left following a series of corruption scandals and their failure to bring down unemployment.

Poland is the largest of the EU’s newest member states with 30 million eligible voters.

The election is the fifth free parliamentary election since 1989, and the first since Poland joined the EU.

The elections chose the 460-member lower house of parliament while the country will go back to the polls in two weeks to elect a new president.

“Everything points to us having won this election," PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski told party supporters in Warsaw.

Analysts say the field for the Presidency is open to PO's Donald Tusk and PiS' Lech Kaczynski.

Lech's twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has pledged that he will not accept the prime minister's job in the new government if his sibling becomes President.

Consequently Poland will not know the name of its new prime minister until next month.

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