Poland's ruling Law and Justice Party wins parliamentary elections: official results

WARSAW - Poland's ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) has won a majority of seats in the Sejm, the most important house in the parliament, but lost the Senate by one seat, according to official results of Sunday's general elections announced by the State Electoral Commission on Monday evening.

Official results indicated that PiS got 43.59 percent of votes casted for the Sejm, Civic Coalition 27.40 percent, the left-wing alliance Lewica 12.56 percent, the alliance between agrarian PSL and populist Kukiz'15 got 8.55 percent and far-right Confederation 6.81 percent of votes.

This breakdown of votes translates into 235 mandates for PiS, 134 for Civic Coalition, 49 for Lewica, 30 for PSL-Kukiz'15, and 11 for the far-right, the electoral commission announced on Monday.

Compared to the current parliament, the Sejm in the next mandate will have parliamentarians from across the political spectrum, from the far-right to the left, which will probably translate into much more lively parliamentary debates.

Crucially, the anti-PiS opposition managed to win the Senate, by 51 to 49 seats, after the three main opposition forces - Civic Coalition, Lewica and PSL-Kukiz'15 - made a deal not to field candidates against one another. Seats in the 100-strong Senate are allocated by the first past the post method, meaning that the winner is the candidate to reach a simple majority in his or her electoral district. This means the opposition-controlled Senate will be able to prevent legislation from being passed if it's thought to be unconstitutional.

The official results are not far off from the exit polls announced on Sunday night.

PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at PiS headquarters in response to the first exit poll. "We got a lot, but we deserve more."

"The day the results of the elections were announced, we consider to be the best day of the evolution of our political formation," Kaczynski said on Monday night, upon the announcement of the official results.

Poles are voting on Sunday for a new parliament in general elections. Little over 30 million Poles have the right to vote. 61.74 percent of eligible Poles voted in these elections.