Komorowski's presidential setback spells trouble for Polish govt

[WorldNews]

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The 62-year-old incumbent conceded defeat late Sunday to Andrzej Duda -- a 42-year-old lawyer backed by the Law and Justice (PiS) conservative opposition party -- whom he will face in the May 24 run-off vote. Partial official results painted a grim picture for Komorowski, who had been the frontrunner in pre-election opinion polls and is close to the centrist Civic Platform (PO) that has governed Central Europe's largest economy since 2007. Duda scored 36.7 percent against Komorowski's 31.9 percent, with rock star and political novice Pawel Kukiz trailing at 21 percent, according to partial results from the election commission. Komorowski, a historian who took office in 2010 after the death of his PiS predecessor in a plane crash, himself dubbed the first-round outcome as "a serious warning for the entire governing camp".

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