According to surveys, the party seems poised to lose power to the conservative opposition Law and Justice party, which is riding high after its candidate, Andrzej Duda, unexpectedly won the presidential election and took office in August. At the start of the last, two-day parliamentary session, lawmaker Jaroslaw Gromadzki took the floor to protest the barring of the party of a controversial businessman, Zbigniew Stonoga, from running in some constituencies because of insufficient support. Beata Szydlo, Law and Justice's candidate for prime minister, said the ruling party was taking illegal steps, like the planned last-moment appointment of new judges for a special court that were "spoiling the state" and obstructing the president's work.