Polish centre-right wins overwhelming election victory

Polish voters gave an overwhelming election victory to two centre-right parties committed to tax cuts and fighting corruption, severely punishing a left-wing government marred by sleaze scandals and its failure to create jobs.

The state electoral commission today said that, with 60% of votes counted, the conservative Law and Justice Party had 26.56% of the vote, ahead of the free-market Civic Platform on 24.08%.

The two parties, formed by former activists in the Solidarity movement, say they will form a coalition.

The early returns showed about 11% support for the governing Democratic Left Alliance, a sharp fall from the 41% that swept them to power four years ago, but a showing better than many polls had predicted.

Early results indicated that the two winning parties would control 274 seats in parliament’s 460-member lower house. Attention has now turned to which party would take the prime posts in the next Cabinet, with coalition talks due to start later this week.