Warsaw - Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski's shock setback in the first round of the presidential election spells serious trouble for the governing liberals just months ahead of the parliamentary polls.
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.
"Yellow card for PO," said political analyst Stanislaw Mocek. "The people don't want a team at the helm that is content with running the country, handling day-to-day affairs without introducing any real reform."
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".
The president has limited powers, which include steering defence and foreign policy and the right to veto legislation in the EU member of 38 million people.
AFP
