A poll conducted by ARC Rynek i Opinia at the end of September shows that 51 per cent of Polish emigrants say they will vote for the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party, 18.7 per cent for the Left and Democrats (LiD) with the governing Law and Justice (PiS) is in third place with 12.1 percent. According to the poll, the turnout among Poles living abroad will amount to 40 per cent.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles have gone to live in the UK, ireland and elsewhere since Poland joined the EU in 2004.
The fourth party to pass the five-percent electoral threshold to get into the Sejm – the Polish parliament - will be the newly formed Women’s Party with a six per cent support from Poles abroad.
It is worth mentioning that the opinion poll was conducted among Poles living in Europe who are typically younger than their American counterparts and therefore less conservative, say experts.
According to the poll, the highest Polish ex-pat turnout will be in Belgium (50.3 per cent), Denmark (45.3 per cent) and France (45 per cent), whereas the lowest should be expected in Norway (36.3 per cent), Holland and Italy (37.1 per cent in each).
In the UK, the turnout is expected at 37.7 per cent and in Ireland at 42.2 per cent.
So large are the number of Poles living abroad that political parties are now viewing them as important new ‘constituencies. Last weekend the leader of Civic Platform, Donald Tusk, went to the UK to campaign for ex-pat votes.