Azerbaijan, Baku, October 12 / Trend E.Tariverdiyeva/
Poland is a parliamentarian republic, which means that the government established as the result of these elections will shape the Polish policy during the next 4 years, Polish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Michal Labenda said in an interview with Trend.
Parliamentary elections to both the Senate and the Sejm' (lower house) were held in Poland on October 9, 2011. The elections were for all 460 seats of the Sejm and all 100 seats of the Senate.
The previous elections, in 2007, resulted in a Civic Platform-Polish People's Party government, he said.
The second-biggest party in the parliament, Law and Justice (headed by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, brother of late President Lech Kaczynski), remained in opposition. All 460 seats in Sejm and 100 in Senate were up for re-election, Ambassador said.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform (PO) won a majority of seats, becoming the first Polish prime minister after 1989 by leading his party to the second parliamentarian victory in a row, Labenda said.
"The Polish People's Party (PSL), who had previously been the junior partner in the governing coalition, said that it would like to continue the coalition agreement after the elections. Such a coalition has a secure majority in the lower house", Ambassador said.
Candidates for Deputies are nominated either by the electoral committees of the various political parties or by individual voter committees, he said.
The process of elections for the Sejm is held through a party-list proportional representation, Labenda said.
"For the first time, the Senate (upper house) was elected using the first past-the-post electoral method, with one member to be returned in each of the 100 single member constituencies," Ambassador said. "In previous elections, the Senate was elected using the plurality bloc voting system."
Due to the Presidency of Poland in the European Union there will be no changes in the government till the beginning of 2012, he added.
"The old/new Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a "major reshuffle" of the government in January. It is expected that foreign minister, finance minister and defense minister will remain in office. The President will now propose the forming of the new government to the leader of the winning party (Donald Tusk). His government will have to be approved by the majority (min. 231 votes out of 460) of the Sejm", Labenda said.