Conservatives win elections, return to power in Poland
Poland's conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) has declared victory over the ruling Civic Platform (PO) party in parliamentary elections.
After declaring victory on Sunday, the leader of PiS Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of Poland's late president Lech Kaczynski , paid tribute to his brother, who died along scores of Polish statesmen in a 2010 jet crash in Smolensk, western Russia.
"Without him, we wouldn't be here today. His spirit is stronger than his body. We must keep his memory alive," Kaczynski told reporters.
"This is the first time in the history of Polish democracy that a single party has scored a majority," he added.
The Law and Justice party is close to the country's powerful Roman Catholic Church and is most strongly supported by those in rural areas.
This is the second straight victory for the Law and Justice Party (PiS) after it regained the presidency in May when Andrzej Duda won the poll.
By late Sunday, about 39% of those eligible had voted, slightly higher than the poll four years ago, officials confirmed.
Exit polls showed that the PiS won 242 seats in the 460-member lower house of parliament, allowing the party to govern alone without the need for a coalition partner.
The Law and Justice party, throughout its campaign, promised to tackle corruption as well as its economic program.
Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz from the losing PO party swiftly conceded defeat.
"We didn't waste the last eight years," she told party members at her campaign headquarters in the capital Warsaw.
"Poland is a country that has made economic progress; unemployment is down to single-digits. This is the Poland we leave to the election winners,” she also said.
For the past ten years, Poland has seen its economy, the largest in ex-communist central Europe, expand by nearly 50 percent.
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