A new poll released by GfK Polonia shows that the ruling Civic Platform is losing ground to the major opposition Law and Justice, with just 12 percentage points separating the rival parties.

The poll shows 45 percent support for Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform, a drop of five percentage points on last month. Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s opposition Law and Justice won 33 percent support, a rise of three percent.

Even though the Civic Platform has led in the polls since its election victory in 2007, the Rzeczpospolita daily opines that support is dropping for the ruling party, mainly because of price hikes and weariness of the electorate.

Two other parties would get into the Sejm lower parliamentary house if elections were to be held at the beginning of May.

The Democratic Left Alliance gained 13 percent support, while junior coalition partners, the Polish Peasants’ Party would have been awarded 5 percent of the ballot, which is the threshold for getting into parliament.

The poll was conducted between 28 April and 3 May among 999 adult respondents. (jb)