In Poland the presidential election will take place most likely in October this year. The candidate from the ruling Civic Platform party is likely to stand the best chance of winning. The government is generally popular, whereas the poll ratings of the incumbent president, Lech Kaczyński, are not particularly good and he has not yet announced whether he will be standing again.

Earlier this year, the prime minister, Donald Tusk, from the Civic Platform announced that he would not be standing for the presidency. The current period of cohabitation has shown that the president’s powers are very limited. So, Tusk calculated that he would be more influential if he remained as prime minister.

Tusk was the natural frontrunner. So, when he announced he was not standing, the search for a new Civic Platform candidate began. Interestingly, the party decided to have a primary election. In the end, only two candidates stood. They were Bronisław Komorowski, the speaker of parliament, and Radosław Sikorski, the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Only party members were eligible to vote and voting took place by postal ballot and over the internet from 18-25 March. The result was announced late last week. The turnout was 47.5% (about 21,000 of 46,000 votes) with Komorowski winning 68.5% and Sikorski 31.5%.

So, Bronisław Komorowski will be the Civic Platform’s presidential candidate later this year.