Posted on 10/10/2005 10:08:05 AM PDT by Stultis
| By Adam Easton BBC correspondent in Warsaw |
Whoever wins in the second round in two weeks' time, Poland will have a right-wing president and prime minister for the first time in 12 years.
In both the presidential and recent parliamentary elections voters punished the former communists for failing to reduce high unemployment and curb corruption.
With more than 90% of the votes counted, Donald Tusk of the liberal Civic Platform party led with 35.82% and Lech Kaczynski of the conservative Law and Justice Party trailed slightly with 33.29%.
Market reforms
As none of the 12 candidates managed to win 50% of the ballot, a second round run-off between Mr Tusk and Mr Kaczynski will take place on 23 October.
Both men come from parties that have their roots in the Solidarity movement which helped topple communism in Poland in 1989.
And both agree that previous governments were incompetent and corruption is widespread.
But they offer different solutions and Poland is in for two weeks of intense debate.
A keen football player, the youthful-looking candidate comes from the small ethnic Kashubian community in north-west Poland and he is promising to be a president who will unite people.
"I hope Tusk will win to counterbalance Law and Justice. I support the liberals who will definitely help with small business," Joanna, a language school owner, told me.
"A lot of young people cannot find jobs and if there are some new laws which could help employ people, that would help the economy and make the country grow."
Traditional values
Mr Kaczynski, 56, is promising more radical change. A strident ant-communist, his father fought against the Germans in the World War II resistance.
He wants Poland to become a new Fourth Republic based on Catholic and family values.
Such a republic would represent a symbolic end to post-communist influence in Poland of the Third Republic, which was created when the communists and Solidarity opposition movement negotiated the end of the communist regime in 1989.
It is a message that has gone down well among people cut adrift by the free market reforms in many small towns and rural areas in the poorer eastern parts of Poland.
"After the tough changes we went through in the beginning of the 90s, people react allergically to the word 'liberal', so that's why social and Christian values are very important to people," Katarzyna, an assistant to a Polish MEP, told me.
Confusing resemblance
With so little between them after the first round, it looks likely to be a close race in the run-off.
But Ewa Milewicz, a columnist for Gazeta Wyborcza, writes that Mr Kaczynski's message may have more to offer people. "Law and Justice are not angling, it's fishing for the voters with huge nets," she writes.
But Mr Kaczynski's chances may be hurt by his identity problem.
An identical twin, his brother Jaroslaw heads the Law and Justice Party. He refused to become their candidate for prime minister to help Lech get elected.
But it is obvious that Jaroslaw is the main power in the party which won the recent parliamentary elections.
Voters may shy away from handing too much power to twins that many here simply cannot tell apart.
| Polish Candidates Headed for Runoff ^ |
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| Posted by knighthawk On News/Activism ^ 10/10/2005 11:19:57 AM CDT · 2 replies · 38+ views Las Vegas Sun ^ | October 10 2005 | MONIKA SCISLOWSKA/AP The final count in Poland's presidential election confirmed Monday that the pro-market lawmaker Donald Tusk won more votes than conservative Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, but fell short of a majority needed for an outright victory in a first round of balloting. Tusk, the smooth-mannered deputy parliament speaker, had 36.3 percent of the votes from Sunday's election, while the outspoken Kaczynski had 33.1 percent. Tusk vowed to next take his campaign to small towns and villages to win over rural voters ahead of the runoff election Oct. 23. The race in the formerly communist country centered on the Europe-wide issue of... |
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| Polish presidential election results (with 91,53% of the votes counted) ^ |
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| Posted by Tarkin On News/Activism ^ 10/09/2005 7:58:23 PM CDT · 28 replies · 1,053+ views 1. Donald Tusk (social moderate, fiscal conservative) 35,82% 2. Lech Kaczynski (social conservative, fiscal moderate) 33,29% 3. Andrzej Lepper (left-wing populist) 15,59% 4. Marek Borowski (socialdemocrat) 10,19% 5. Jaroslaw Kalinowski (agrarian moderate) 1,85% 6. Janusz Korwin-Mikke (libertarian) 1,41% 7. Henryka Bochniarz (liberal) 1,25% Other candidates received less than 1%. |
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| Polish Solidarity duo to face off for presidency ^ |
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| Posted by Valin On News/Activism ^ 10/09/2005 7:51:01 PM CDT · 36+ views Reuters ^ | 10/10/05 | Pawel Kozlowski WARSAW (Reuters) - Poles picked two centre-right candidates with roots in the Solidarity movement for a run-off presidential ballot on October 23, which may be decided by leftist voters suspicious of both contenders. Exit polls and partial results of Sunday's election gave free-market enthusiast Donald Tusk around 36 percent of the vote, a 3-point lead over conservative Lech Kaczynski, but short of the 50 percent needed to avoid a second round of voting. Both finished well ahead of 10 other candidates, cementing a swing to the right in Poland after their parties trounced the scandal-tainted ruling left in parliamentary polls... |
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| Liberal, conservative to fight it out for Polish presidency ^ |
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| Posted by lizol On News/Activism ^ 10/09/2005 2:44:20 PM CDT · 2 replies · 62+ views AFP via Yahoo! News ^ | 9.10.2005 Liberal, conservative to fight it out for Polish presidency. WARSAW (AFP) - Polish voters confirmed their shift to the right as they handed Donald Tusk of the centre-right Civic Platform party a lead over his main rival for the presidency, Warsaw's conservative mayor Lech Kaczynski, in an election. But neither Tusk nor Kaczynski, whom exit polls credited with around 38.5 percent and 33 percent respectively, had enough votes to claim victory in the first round of the election, exit polls showed. The two will have to fight it out to succeed centre-left President Aleksander Kwasniewski in a run-off on October... |
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Kudos to our Polish friends.
Analysis from the BBC? This can't be good.
better than analysis from The Guardian. As for the American papers, they don't seem to care.
Smart Polish voters!
Dzieki
This is good news. The left appears to be losing credibility in most of Europe.
Thanks for your persepective from the home front.
My pleasure:}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
Good week for Poland, with qualifying for the World Cup and now the Right firmly in control.
Yes Yes Yes You got it, how are you good friend"dfwgator", albo ponaszemu co tam slychac? Dzieki
Greeting from "Little Warsaw" in Chicago to our alley, Poland. May wisdom guild the Polish voters in this election. Sounds like the "Liberal" candidate is the more conservative.
This is fascinating. In fact, I will stick my neck out and say that this is the most dramatic change in direction in Poland since the early 1700s. In other words, at long last, there is hope for full recovery and true strength.
Looking at Kaczynski, I would define him as Christian socialist. Or at the very least, a strong communitarian.
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