EU election: PO victorious, Self-Defense takes a battering

Although the official results of the elections to the EU Parliament will be announced tomorrow after voting crease across the EU, some initial results have been projected. The Civic Platform (PO), with 29% support, seems to have won the lions share of the vote, say the statistics based on a telephone poll done around 6 p.m by Rzeczpospolita and Gazeta Wyborcza. The league of Polish Families did (LPR) unexpectedly well, coming second with around 16% support, while Law and Justice (PiS) and Self-Defense both scored 12%. The remaining three parties that crossed the 5% threshold were: 11% for the Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union coalition, the Freedom Union won 6%, and the Polish Peasant's Party trailed in with just 5% support. However, the turnout appears to have been well below the EU average of around 35%. At midday just under 6% of people voted, with the figure rising to 15.4% at 6 p.m. (Rzeczpospolita p. A1, Gazeta Wyborcza p. 1) M.G.