Polish election winner could consider alliance with rock star Kukiz

WARSAW Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) would consider a partnership with rock star Pawel Kukiz and his anti-establishment grouping if they fall short of a clear majority in the final results of Sunday’s election, the party’s likely candidate for defense minister said on Monday.

According to the latest, but still unofficial exit poll by IPSOS, PiS secured 37.7 percent of the vote, which gives the current main opposition party 232 seats in the 460-member lower house of parliament.

That was down on initial indications that the party had won more than 240 seats and the final number could fall further if a handful of smaller parties exceed vote thresholds for getting into parliament.

Pawel Kukiz’ grouping, Kukiz’15, looked set to secure 8.7 percent of votes, which translates into 42 seats. Official results are due on Tuesday.

“If it turned out that we are a few seats short (of a majority) I would prefer a stable cooperation and the first natural partner is Mr Kukiz,” said Jaroslaw Gowin, who leads one of the smaller allied groupings with which PiS fought the election.

“If Kukiz decides otherwise, then we’d have to bet on a scenario of a minority government,” Gowin, who PiS officials have said will likely be the country’s new defense minister, told Polsat News TV.

While Kukiz has claimed a protest vote from younger Poles dissatisfied with politics, his views on social issues chime with the socially conservative and traditional Catholicism of PiS.

Earlier on Monday, Kukiz told Radio Zet he did not plan to enter a coalition but Polish political commentators assume that Law and Justice will be able to count on at least some of the group’s MPs in parliament.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko and Adrian Krajewski- Editing by Toby Chopra)