Poland’s presidential election results reveal not just a split between west and north and east and south in political allegiance but also between city and countryside.

The national election commission has confirmed that support for the winner Bronislaw Komorowski and his opponent Jaroslaw Kaczynski is divided, geographically by the river Vistula, which snakes its way through the middle of Poland. Sixty percent of western, southwestern and northwestern provinces voted for Komorowski, the right-of-centre Civic Platform candidate. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whose support mainly comes from the elderly, poor and religious, garnered most support in the eastern regions (60 percent) and central Poland with over 50 percent of the votes.

Town and country

But the political divisons in Poland run deeper than that, with Komorowski being the clear winner in the larger cities of over 250,000 inhabitants. Results show that the city of Lublin in the east was the only regional capital which saw a win for Jaroslaw Kaczynski (50,25 percent) to Komorowski’s 49,75 percent.  

In Opole and Poznan in the south and west Komorowski received 70 percent support as compared to over 20 percent for Kaczynski. In Gdansk on the Baltic coast and Olsztyn in the north east Komorowski was supported by 67 and 66 percent respectively.

Even in regions where Jaroslaw Kaczynski was most popular, the capital cities voted for Komorowski. In Lodz, central Poland and Bialystok in the east, for instance, Komorowski won 63 percent of votes.

The central Mazovia region told the same stor, with the province as a whole voting Kaczynski but in Warsaw voted 63 percent support for Komorowski and 36,48 percent for Kaczynski.

The turnout was highest in Warsaw, at 66,7percent followed by Gdansk on 64, 71 percent. The lowest turnout, 53,77 percent was recorded in Gorzow Wielkopolski in the west. (pg/ab)