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Opposition senator elected Polish upper-house Speaker

12.11.2019 19:30
Opposition senator Tomasz Grodzki was elected Speaker of the upper house of Poland’s parliament after a cliffhanger vote in Warsaw on Tuesday.
Tomasz Grodzki celebrates being elected Speaker of the upper house of Polands parliament on Tuesday evening.
Tomasz Grodzki celebrates being elected Speaker of the upper house of Poland's parliament on Tuesday evening.Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell

Grodzki, a politician with the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party and a surgeon by profession, won 51 votes, defeating conservative candidate Stanisław Karczewski, a fellow surgeon, as the newly elected Polish Senate gathered for its first meeting.

Karczewski, the previous Speaker from Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, was supported by 48 senators. One abstained.

The upper-house vote came after Polish MPs earlier in the day overwhelmingly re-elected conservative Elżbieta Witek as the Speaker of the lower house of parliament.

Poles elected a new set of 460 MPs and 100 senators when they went to the ballot box last month.

The conservative Law and Justice party, allied with two smaller groupings in a United Right coalition, won Poland's October 13 parliamentary election and secured a second term in power.

It maintained a majority in the 460-seat lower house, the Sejm, but narrowly lost control of the 100-seat upper house.

The upper house has power to initiate legislation, and it can also defeat bills approved by the lower house. The Sejm needs to muster an absolute majority to override Senate amendments.

(gs/pk)

Source: TVP Info, IAR