points of view
Polish Diaspora chooses Komorowski Had the Polish presidential election only taken place in the UK, Bronisław Komorowski would have won it in the first round. The Sejm Speaker [lower chamber of the Polish Parliament] has a vast number of supporters here.
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Marcin Kozioł
n the first round of the election 57.01 per cent of the voters chose Bronisław Komorowski, Jarosław Kaczyński received 22.68 per cent of votes and Grzegorz Napieralski gained the support of an astonishing 10 per cent of the voters. From the Polish voters’ comments coming from abroad one could come to a conclusion that the choice between Kaczyński and Komorowski is, in fact, the choice between the vision of Poland of poor people and the one of those who are well off. However, it is difficult to say whether the reasons for the strong support of the Polish Diaspora in the UK for the candidate of the Civic Platform [PO] are the same. Polish Election results in UK (wykres z tabelka zmienic tylko slowo w wkresie z Tura na Round czyli 1 round , 2 round etc) In first round 38 508 people took part in the election in the territory of the United Kingdom in second round 43 979 , which constitutes only a small fraction of the migrants eligible to vote. It is not possible to say what exactly the percentage of eligible voters is, as there are no institutions monitoring the movement of the migrants. However, estimated data indicates that there may be from several hundred thousand to up to as many as 2 million Polish people who after 2004 migrated to the UK. Even if this data includes the numbers from both the UK and Ireland and is slightly inflated, still 38.5 thousand is a very low turnout and shows that the Polish, when abroad, are very little interested in the matters of their own country. Nevertheless, the most active Polish diaspora in this election were in fact the migrants in the UK. It was here where the most Polish passport holders went to vote. Second place occupied by the USA, followed by Germany and Ireland. In total there were 167 715 valid votes cast outside Poland in first round and in second round 201 580.
A hope to return? Katarzyna Swiba The Polish presidential election in the UK did show that Polish voters were definitely pro Bronislaw Komorowski. In front of him is the difficult task of keeping this support going. The question remains, why did the immigrants support him in
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Jakarta (Indonesia), Belgrade (Serbia), Bagdad (Iraq), Riga (Latvia), Istanbul (Turkey) and Kaliningrad (Russia). The lowest turnout was in Sana’a 32.14 per cent (Yemen), Amman 37.36 per cent (Jordan) and Havana 42.86 per cent (Cuba).
Results of first round – votes outside Poland: Bronisław Komorowski gained the most support in Oman 93.33 per cent. Vietnam 88.46 per cent and Morocco 72.02 per cent. While the lowest support he received was in Panama 19.23 per cent, Canada 22.28 per cent, Afghanistan 24.05 per cent and in the US 25.18 per cent. Jarosław Kaczyński received the most votes in Panama 73.08 per cent, Canada 72.98 per cent and in the USA 69.57 per cent. The smallest number of voters voted for him in Malaysia 3.23, Oman 6.67, Armenia 7.14 and in Vietnam 7.69 per cent respectively.
Results of second round – votes outside Poland: Bronisław Komorowski again gained the most support in Oman 100 per cent. In Malaysia 90,16 per cent. In Canada 26,24 per cent, In USA 28,41 per cent and in Afghanistan 38,21 per cent. Jarosław Kaczyński simmilary to first round results in Canada were very good 73,76 per cent and in USA 71,59 per cent. Worse results were in Oman 0 per cent, In Malaysia 9,84 per cent and in Macedonia 12,24 per cent.
Grzegorz Napieralski did best in Kosovo with 31.23, Montenegro 26.23 and Afghanistan 23.04 per cent of votes. His worst results were in Venezuela, New Zealand, Yemen, Oman and Panama, where he did not receive a single vote. Andrzej Lepper did not receive many votes abroad. His total support nowhere exceeded the mere 3.57 per cent (with the highest recorded in Armenia), and in the great majority of the countries not a single person gave him their vote. such large numbers? Were the votes really pro-Komorowski? Maybe they were against Kaczynski. Maybe because people who at least once in their lives tried to live abroad, are usually more open minded and are more accepting of diversity, tolerant and less frightened of changes. It is possible that his pro-European political declaration as well as statements about building Poland to become an economically stable country have lots to do
The Migrant at home / AUGUST 2010 / www.migranthome.co.uk
with him winning this election. It is just speculation to say that the migrants who voted for Komorowski did in fact vote because they want to eventually go back home. Maybe it is just our small veto against the economical situation that has forced many young people to leave Poland? Maybe we are hoping that what he has promised he will deliver, more jobs, better pay, more chances to develop because this is the Poland that we want to go back to?