Poland’s Civic Platform selects candidate for Presidential election

cde.news desk 14 December 2019, 14:24 · 1 min read

epa07918977 (L-R) Malgorzata Tracz, Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska and Barbara Nowacka react during the Civic Coalition (KO) parliamentary elections night in Warsaw, Poland, 13 October 2019. An average of eleven candidates are running for each Sejm (lower house) seat in the national elections. In total, 5,114 people are running for 460 seats. Two hundred and seventy-eight people are running for the Senate (upper house), three candidatures for each seat. Five electoral committees were registered in all 41 constituencies, namely, the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Poland's main opposition bloc the Civic Coalition (KO), the Polish People's Party (PSL) with the Kukiz'15 party, the Confederation Freedom and Independence and the Left (Lewica) bloc comprising liberal and left-wing parties the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), Spring and Together. EPA-EFE/Pawel Supernak POLAND OUT

Poland’s center-right Civic Platform (PO), chose party veteran Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska as its contender to unseat nationalist ally Andrzej Duda in a presidential election next year, Reuters reports.

A former parliament speaker, Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, 62, and known for building consensus, is trailing Duda, 47, in opinion polls by a double-digit margin, but her party hopes she will be able to mobilize undecided voters at a time of deepening political polarization in Poland.

“It is not easy to be in the center in populist times,” said Grzegorz Schetyna, the leader of Civic Platform, ahead of the party vote.

Via Reuters / Onet

Topics civic platform Election Watch Małgorzata Kidawa Błońska Poland