Poland: Initial Microblog Coverage of the Presidential Elections · Global Voices
Sylwia Presley

The first round of the presidential elections in Poland finished at 8 PM tonight. You can see profiles of all the candidates, as well as the initial results of a poll, on this Gazeta.pl website [PL]. According to this poll, Bronisław Komorowski received an estimated 45.7% of the votes, which puts him only a few percent away from winning the elections in this first round. Jarosław Kaczyński, the brother of the late president Lech Kaczyński, is said to have received 33.2% of the votes. Grzegorz Napieralski, with his 13.2% of the votes, comes in the third place.
Next to the preliminary results released by the mainstream media, we are looking at reactions emerging on microblogging services. Both on Twitter and on its Polish mirror service, Blip.pl, people are expressing their initial thoughts about the announced results under #wybory [elections] hashtag.
Many of those who did not vote are re-tweeting @ChrisApril, who posted [PL] his view in the form of a photo featuring all the candidates’ names crossed out:
My photo of the day: http://htxt.it/MkSh #elections
‘I do not give a shit about you. None of you is worth my vote’
A few users question the quality of exit poll predictions. @lecrerro points out [PL]:
Not the methodology but the very fact that something like polls exist is unacceptable. I suggest deciding whether it's a poll or the elections.
@michio is also questioning [PL] the accuracy of the announced results:
WHERE IS THE REPORT OF INDEPENDENT OBSERVERS #ELECTIONS
Another Twitter user, @jacekgalka, points out [PL] the fact that the actual results are not available yet:
oh fun. 3 hrs after the elections and we still cannot be certain who won and if there will be the second round. Whether he won with 5 or 13 is a huge difference.
Others start commenting on the announced results. Some, like @szwalowski, refer [PL] to the less popular candidates:
It's sad that my candidate lost even to Korwin-Mikke! #elections
Others criticize choices of those citizens who support the leading candidates. @sweetdreams is harsh on the region which supported Kaczyński [PL]:
Lublin area..SHAME ON YOU. Another #elections, and you are still supporting the Kaczyński brothers.  F@@@@@ backyard of PiS party:/
Other voices speculate about the actual results. @maleństwo points out [PL]:
#elections really interested whether Komorowski would win… He is the lesser evil out of the two in my opinion.
@darekespl agrees with her, linking to the previous blip [PL]:
http://blip.pl/s/98043436 I must say I will also go for lesser evil during the second round #elections
As discussions continue, it's worth following the hashtags for the three leading candidates, too: #komorowski, #kaczynski and #napieralski. The official results will be published as soon as the counting of the votes is finalized. The second round of the elections is planned for July 4.