Poland starts presidential election

The eligible voters in Poland began to cast their ballots in the polling stations across the country to elect a new president to succeed outgoing President Aleksander Kwasniewski.

Some 30 million voters are eligible to vote. Voting started at 6:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) Sunday and the first exit polls will be issued at around 8:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) when polling stations close.

Latest opinions showed, for the time being, candidate Donald Tusk, from Civic Platform party, and Lech Kaczynski, from Law and Justice party, are taking the lead over the remaining 10 candidates in the run for presidency.

The decisive victory over the current ruling party in the Sept. 25 parliamentary elections has led to talks between Tusk's and Kaczynski's parties on the possibility of forming a coalition government, but the presidential duel of the two leaders has rendered the negotiation erratic.

Both Tusk and Kaczynski endorse EU membership, but they diverge on the country's welfare system and the process of free-market reform.

The 48-year-old Tusk, leader of the pro-market Civic Platform party, has been propagandizing his plan to boost the economy by cutting red tape and taxes, in a bid to narrow the gap between Poland and West European nations in economic development.

He also vowed to fight corruption and unemployment, and improve the country's relations with big neighbors Germany and Russia.

Another major contender, Warsaw Mayor Kaczynski, at the age of 56 and a leading member of the socially conservative Law and Justice party, promises a new Poland under the banner of the "Fourth Republic," "moral renewal," protecting the rights of workers and building a welfare state.

Other presidential candidates include Andrzej Lepper, leader of the Self-Defense party, Marek Borowski, ex-communist and leader of the left-wing Social Democracy of Poland, and Jaroslaw Kalinowski, leader of the Polish Peasant Party.

Although the prime minister practically runs the government, the winner of the Polish presidency still holds the power as the commander in chief, having a say in foreign policy, proposing and vetoing legislation, nominating the prime minister and dissolving the parliament under certain circumstances.

A runoff between the two top contenders will be held two weeks later, if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, according to Polish law.

Source: Xinhua