At least 20 political parties have been seated in parliament as a result of Sunday's elections, with the Solidarity-based Democratic Union and an alliance of former communists heading the list, nearly complete returns showed Tuesday.
With 98 percent of returns counted, the Democratic Union, led by former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, held 12.23 percent of the vote, followed by the post-communist Democratic Leftist Alliance with 12.07 percent.The figures did not include returns from Warsaw and Gdansk, the respective strongholds of the Democratic Union and several Solidarity parties. Half a million returns remain to be tabulated from those areas, which is expected to provide a wider margin between the two top parties.
Election Commissioner Andrzej Zoll said 11,549,633 Poles voted in the first free parliamentary elections in more than half a century, a turnout of 42.91 percent.
Political analysts listed dissatisfaction over the economic situation and the fragmentation of Solidarity into several splinter parties among the reasons for the low turnout.