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WARSAW (AFP) - Poland elected the conservative, staunchly Catholic Lech Kaczynski president, bucking pre-vote surveys which had consistently put his liberal rival Donald Tusk in the lead, exit polls showed.

Exit polls show Kaczynski wins presidential election 23.10.2005 Tools print recommend link At 20.26 CET, exit polls are showing that the winner of the final round of the Polish presidential election is Lech Kaczynski from the Law and Justice party. The poll for public television, TVP, showed that Kaczynski polled 53.52 percent, and Donald Tusk of Civic Platform received 46.48 percent. Turnout has been estimated to be around.50 percent, the same as two weeks ago in the first round. Polling stations closed today at 20.25, instead of 20.00 as usual, due to the late opening of a station in the...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Tough-talking Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski led Poland's presidential runoff Sunday after a campaign in which he stressed traditional Roman Catholic values and the need for a social safety net. An exit poll for Polish public television showed him leading with 52.8 percent to 47.2 percent over pro-market legislator Donald Tusk, and Tusk said he had lost. "Today I must tell myself I did not make it," Tusk told glum supporters at his election headquarters. An exit poll for TVN24 private television showed an even wider margin, Kaczynski with 53.5 percent and Tusk with 46.5 percent. Partial...

WARSAW Donald Tusk and Lech Kaczynski were running neck and neck in public opinion polls Friday as Poland prepared for a presidential runoff on Sunday. Tusk, the 48-year-old candidate of the business-friendly Civic Platform party, finished three percentage points in front of Kaczynski in the first round of the election two weeks ago and then built up a healthy lead over his conservative rival. But on Friday, the last day that poll results can be published before the voting, surveys showed that the gap between the two had closed. One poll by a little-known agency even put the 56-year-old Kaczynski...

The Polish presidential election race is heating up as polls on the final day suggest support for the two main contenders is almost level. A poll for the national news agency PAP put support for both the conservative Lech Kaczynski and free market advocate Donald Tusk at around 50%. Mr Tusk, of the Civil Platform party, has been the frontrunner until now. His party was beaten at the last minute by Mr Kaczynski's Law and Justice party in parliamentary elections last month. Polling agencies PBS and OBOP put Mr Tusk in the lead on Friday, with around 52% of the...

Analysis: Polish right triumphs By Adam Easton BBC correspondent in Warsaw Poland's presidential election has confirmed a swing to the right. 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...

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...

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%.

Poland race seen as ending communist era VANESSA GERA Associated Press WARSAW, Poland - Sixteen years since the fall of communism, Poles vote Sunday for a new president in an election where no former communist has a chance at victory. The two leading contenders, Donald Tusk and Lech Kaczynski, both sprang from the Solidarity movement in the 1980s and have campaigned on promises to cleanse the state of corruption and the influence of former communists. But they hold opposing views on how far the state should go in guiding the economy at a time when the country is trying to...

Presidential frontrunner in Poland rejects Big Six idea By George Parker in Brussels Published: October 1 2005 03:00 | Last updated: October 1 2005 03:00 Donald Tusk, frontrunner in this month's Polish presidential elections, has rejected calls for Europe to be led by a group of six big countries including Poland. The proposal of a G6 directorate to lead Europe out of its political malaise was made last month by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French presidential hopeful, who said small countries should not be able to block initiatives by the six biggest members. Mr Tusk, a pro-business liberal, told the Financial...

RUSSIA UNEASY ABOUT POLAND'S RIGHTWARD SHIFT By Igor Torbakov Russia's political class is warily eyeing the government in Poland, where two center-right parties won the September 25 parliamentary elections. As relations between Moscow and Warsaw, never particularly warm, have sunk to new lows this year, the Kremlin is concerned with the possible impact of Poland's rightward shift on bilateral ties as well as on relations between Russia and the European Union. Most Russian analysts agree that the domination of the conservative Law and Justice Party and the liberal Civic Platform in Poland's legislature does not bode well for the already...

Mathematician and economics expert Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz was poised to become Poland's next prime minister after being appointed to the post by his conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. "After discussions, I decided that Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is the candidate most able to rapidly and efficiently form a government," said PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski. "This decision has been accepted by the leaders of PiS," said Kaczynski, whom pundits had tipped as the party's most likely choice for prime minister, a post he said he would refuse to avoid jeopardising his twin brother Lech's chances of winning next month's presidential election. "If my...

KAZIMIERZ Marcinkiewicz, poised to become Poland's next prime minister after being nominated by his conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party today, is a mathematician and economics expert. Born in the southern town of Chorzow, Mr Marcinkiewicz began his working life as a teacher after studying mathematics and physics at the University of Wroclaw in south-western Poland. He went on from there to work as a school administrator, and was eventually named deputy education minister, a post he held from 1992-1993. A member of the Solidarity trade union in the 1980s, his links with Poland's Catholic conservatives has been a hallmark...

WARSAW, Poland - Voters in Poland's parliamentary elections shunned the nation's scandal-prone government of ex-communists to embrace two center-right parties that have promised tax cuts and clean government, nearly complete results showed Monday. The conservative Law and Justice Party had 26.8 percent of the vote in Sunday's parliamentary election with 90 percent of ballots counted. The free-market Civic Platform had 24.2 percent. The two parties, made up of former activists in the Solidarity movement, say they will form a coalition enabling them to claim more than 270 seats in parliament's 460-member lower house. The returns showed around 11 percent support...

Poll means new EU role for Poland By Mark Mardell BBC Europe Editor While Germany is still mired in coalition talks heading in an uncertain direction, Poland at least has given the European Union a clear message. The biggest winner, the Law and Justice party (PiS) is lead by two portly identical twins - Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski - nicknamed "the ducks". But their appearance on the European stage is more likely to be a confident march than a waddle. They are aghast that surveys show many Poles see themselves as citizens of "a small nation" when it is geographically...

New Polish government plans to talk tougher with U.S., but remain a close ally Vanessa Gera Canadian Press September 26, 2005 WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Centre-right parties victorious in Poland's weekend election are expected to keep their distance from Russia and retain a pro-U.S. stance but talk tough about what they want from Washington in return. The conservative Law and Justice Party, which initial results showed in the lead Monday, and its expected coalition partner, the free market Civic Platform, support warm ties with the United States. Both parties have also indicated they might extend Poland's deeply unpopular military mission...

WARSAW -- In Mitteleuropa, the roles have reversed. The boring, steady Germans last Sunday opted for political chaos by failing to elect a government. A week later, the passionate but messy Poles expressed no ambivalence in picking a clean slate of leaders. Polish former communists were chucked out after a single term, keeping alive a losing streak for incumbents dating back to the birth of democratic Poland. The fresh Polish twist is found in the victor's camp. Two conservative parties built a majority around the very ideas that Angela Merkel and her center-right allies failed to sell Germans on. Law...

Poland heads into general elections this weekend, with two center-right parties set to quash the governing ex-communists and touch off a struggle over economic policy in the EU's biggest new member. The front-running parties say they will form a coalition which polls suggest could control two-thirds of Poland's parliament enough to change the constitution. But it remains unclear if pro-market economic liberals devoted to reducing state bureaucracy or a socially conservative party determined to preserve welfare-state protections will emerge with the upper hand. In a poll published Friday, the pro-market Civic Platform had 34 percent support, ahead of the conservative...

Disillusioned Poland swings to the right but most voters stay at home From Kamil Tchorek in Warsaw     THE Centre Right swept to victory in the Polish general election yesterday, ousting a post-communist government tainted by corruption and economic mismanagement. Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s national conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, and Jan Rokita’s liberal conservative Civic Platform (PO) were heading for a combined tally of about 60 per cent of the vote, according to exit polls. Mr Kaczynski, the probable next Prime Minister, was quick to declare his party the winners. “All points to our victory . . ....

WARSAW, Poland – Two parties – one pro-business, the other anti-corruption – were favored to oust Poland's ruling ex-communists in a general election Sunday that could determine how quickly the U.S. ally adopts the euro. Also, two brothers – identical twins – are competing on the political stage, one leading the Law and Justice party poised for a good result Sunday, the other a leading candidate in presidential elections Oct. 9. When Poland entered the European Union last year as the bloc's largest country, it agreed eventually to replace the zloty with the EU common currency. To do that, it...