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Poland: Initial Microblog Coverage of the Presidential Elections

Categories: Eastern & Central Europe, Poland, Elections, Governance, Politics, Technology

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 [1] [PL]. According to this poll, Bronisław Komorowski [2] 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 [3], the brother of the late president Lech Kaczyński [4], is said to have received 33.2% of the votes. Grzegorz Napieralski [5], 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 [6] and on its Polish mirror service, Blip.pl [7], 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 [8] [PL] his view in the form of a photo featuring all the candidates’ names crossed out:

[9]

My photo of the day: http://htxt.it/MkSh [10] #elections [11]

'I do not give a shit about you. None of you is worth my vote' [12]

‘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 [13] [PL]:

[14]

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 [15] [PL] the accuracy of the announced results:

[16]

WHERE IS THE REPORT OF INDEPENDENT OBSERVERS #ELECTIONS [7]

Another Twitter user, @jacekgalka, points out [17] [PL] the fact that the actual results are not available yet:

[18]

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 [19] [PL] to the less popular candidates:

[20]

It's sad that my candidate lost even to Korwin-Mikke! #elections [7]

Others criticize choices of those citizens who support the leading candidates. @sweetdreams is harsh [21] on the region which supported Kaczyński [PL]:

[22]

Lublin area..SHAME ON YOU. Another #elections [7], and you are still supporting the Kaczyński brothers. F@@@@@ backyard of PiS party:/

Other voices speculate about the actual results. @maleństwo points out [23] [PL]:

[24]

#elections [7] really interested whether Komorowski would win… He is the lesser evil out of the two in my opinion.

@darekespl agrees with her, linking [25] to the previous blip [PL]:

[26]

http://blip.pl/s/98043436 [23] I must say I will also go for lesser evil during the second round #elections [11]

As discussions continue, it's worth following the hashtags for the three leading candidates, too: #komorowski [27], #kaczynski [28] and #napieralski [29]. 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.