APD | Poland’s ruling party wins election preliminary vote count

By APD writer Adtiya Nugraha

Poland’s ruling party, Law and Justice Party, has secured 46 percent votes as 72 percent of the ballots counted by Monday morning, the National Electoral Commission said.

The ruling party’s competitors of Liberal Civic Platform secured just over 25 percent of the vote, meanwhile the center-left party of Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) finished third at 12 percent from the general election held on Sunday.

Benefiting from expansion of the welfare, the Law and Justice Party, which always use conservative narrative in politics was predicted to get more votes as the vote count is progressing. The party was also estimated to get its electoral influence widened since 2015.

The incumbent party promised to combine welfare expansion with fiscal responsibility with a tagline of “good times for Poland” during the campaign period.

Under the campaign tagline, the party promised zero-deficit and healthcare spending at 6 percent of GDP by 2024, up from 4.6 of 2016 GDP. The party also planned to improve budget facility children and reduce pension age to 65 from 67.

Other promises made by the party were to boost minimum wage by 90 percent, more allocation for education and public transport infrastructure. The party also promised to tax more rich people and liquor to assure the nation in attaining higher prosperity.

Despite its successful results in the election, the incumbent party has to coalesce with the other parties to get majority say in the parliament, analysts said.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)