A pro-business opposition party has enjoyed an overwhelming victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections in Poland, according to exit polls, cited by CNN.

Figures showed on state television revealed 43.7 percent of people cast their votes in support of the Civic Platform party and 30.4 percent have chosen Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice formation.

High turnout caused some polling stations to run out of ballots and stay open longer than scheduled, delaying the release of the first exit polls for nearly three hours. By late afternoon, more than 38 percent of Poland's 30 million eligible voters had cast ballots, and some estimates had final turnout topping 50 percent.

The leader of the opposition Donald Tusk said the vote proved that Poles want to focus on the economic opportunities presented by the country's membership in the EU, which Poland joined in 2004.

"It is Civic Platform's intention to make Poles feel much better in their own country than they have felt so far," Tusk told cheering supporters. "We are going to do huge work and we will do it well. You have the right to rejoice today."

The result is a stinging defeat for country's Prime Minister Kaczynski, whose conservative party was elected two years ago and has since been criticized for its combative approach to the European Union and efforts to purge former communists from positions of influence.

The Civic Platform party and its preferred coalition partner, the Polish Peasants Party, have won a majority of seats in the lower house, which would allow them to form a government together and knock Kaczynski from power.

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