A voter casts her ballot at a polling station during Poland’s parliamentary election in Warsaw, Poland, October 15, 2023. (Photo by Reuters)

Poles began voting on Sunday in parliamentary elections that will prove crucial for future ties with the European Union and neighboring Ukraine, as the ruling populists bid for a third consecutive term in power.

Opinion polls indicate the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party will get the most votes but may struggle to build a governing coalition, giving a chance to the opposition led by former EU chief Donald Tusk.

Polling stations across the EU and NATO member opened at 0500 GMT and will close at 1900 GMT, with exit polls expected immediately after and final results on Monday.

Some 29 million people are eligible to vote, including half a million registered abroad in a large diaspora.

A PiS victory could exacerbate tensions with the EU and Ukraine and will dismay campaigners concerned about the future of media freedoms, women’s and migrants’ rights.

We are in the EU, and we want to stay there, but in an EU of sovereign countries, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at the party’s last major rally in Sandomierz on Friday.

At his own final rally, Tusk told supporters in Pruszkow that PiS had secret plans to leave the EU and said they were leading the country down the wrong path.

(Source: Agencies)