by Surender Bhutani
Warsaw, Oct 27 (IANS): According to the exit polls, the main opposition party Law and Justice has got an absolute majority in the Polish parliamentary elections held on Sunday.
The party headed by former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, has managed to get 39 percent of the votes polled and it has trounced the ruling Civic Platform which has been ruling the country since 2007 by a clear margin of 16 percent.
Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz has conceded the defeat and said,"The voters have punished us for our failures to come up to their standard. But in a democracy defeats and victories are part and parcel of the game. We will play our appropriate role of a main opposition party in the parliament."
Meanwhile, Law and Justice party has already nominated Beata Szydlo as its candidate for the prime minister post. An unknown figure till recently Szydlo was the chief campaign manager of the recently-elected President Andrzej Duda.
She fought a great campaign to come close to the winning post. Fifty-two-year-old Szydlo has come up to the top with her hardwork and dedication to Christian value system and the blessing of her party's leader.
For the first time in the Polish parliamentary election since 1989 women have dominated the election. Apart from Kopacz and Szydlo, the leftist front which failed to get the required eight percent vote, is headed by another lady, a computer programmer Barbara Nowacka.
It seems unpopular party barons have pushed women forward to capitalise on weariness with a male dominated political culture that has been defined by infighting drinking parties and scandals.
Women with their power, somehow, have gained more sympathy and humility in an atmosphere of otherwise abusive politics of Poland.
If Szydlo becomes the prime minister, she will be the third woman to hold the post.
Hanna Sachocka was the first Polish woman who became the prime minister way back in 1992 but she lasted only for fifteen months.
The present prime minister Kopacz got the top job in August 2014 when Donald Tusk, then prime minister got elected as the president of the European Union.
Apart from two main parties, three other small parties have managed to cross the threshold of five percent to enter the parliament.
The presence of the small parties has an added attraction to join the new government. There has always been a coalition government ever since the fall of communism in 1989.