Poland’s opposition Law and Justice party – conservative and Eurosceptic – has won parliamentary elections.
Preliminary results gave the party 37.6% of the vote, but it was not immediately clear if that would be enough for it to govern alone.
Its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski claimed victory, and the outgoing Prime Minister, Ewa Kopacz of the centrist Civic Platform, admitted defeat.
Law and Justice (PiS) has strong support in poorer, rural areas.
Civic Platform, the pro-market party that governed for the last eight years, got 24.1% of the vote.
Three other parties also won enough votes to get seats in parliament: a new right-wing party led by rock star Pawel Kukiz with 8.8%; a new pro-business party, Modern Poland, with 7.6%; and the agrarian Polish People’s Party with 5.1%.
The election authority is expected to announce how many seats the parties get in parliament on Tuesday.
Exit polls suggested Law and Justice would have a small majority – making it the first time a single party has won enough seats to govern alone since democracy was restored in 1989.
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