Poland swings to the right in general election
Ian Traynor, central Europe correspondent
Monday September 26, 2005
The Guardian
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a conservative and a stalwart anti-communist, was poised to become Poland's prime minister last night, leading a rightwing coalition.
Mr Kaczynski's Law and Justice party came from behind in a general election to take first place with about 28% of the vote, according to Polish television exit polls.
The liberal rightwing Civic Platform, a possible coalition partner for Mr Kaczynski, came second according to the projections, with about 25%. If, as promised, both parties forge a coalition government, they will muster a comfortable majority with about 300 seats in the 460-seat Polish sejm, or parliament, although short of the two-thirds majority they wanted to rewrite the constitution. The election represented a drubbing for the scandal-prone governing party of former communists, the Democratic Left Alliance, which took about 11%, compared with 41% in 2001...
