Poland's Tusk Faces Presidential Runoff, Polls Show

Poland's Donald Tusk, who leads the race for president, will face his key rival again later this month after failing to take at least 50 percent of the vote, exit polls show.

Tusk won 38.7 percent of the vote, with his main rival, Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski, taking 33.2 percent, according to an exit poll by GfK Polonia for private TV station TVN24. The State Election Committee plans to release final results by tomorrow evening. The second round of voting will be held Oct. 23.

``The next two weeks won't see a campaign that will be decided by billboards, money and empty promises,'' Tusk said on public television after initial results were announced. ``People know what we stand for and what our visions are.''

The lack of a first-round win may stall coalition talks and delay the formation of a government until the final week of October. Kaczynski's Law & Justice party and Tusk's Citizens' Platform together won the Sept. 25 parliamentary election and are seeking to overcome disagreements on economic policy as they work to form a joint cabinet.

Law & Justice Chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski nominated Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz for prime minister Sept. 27. He had said he wouldn't become premier if his twin brother, Lech, won the presidency.

Taxes, Euro Adoption

``We still don't know who is really going to be prime minister,'' said Ryszard Petru, chief economist at BPH Bank in Warsaw. ``That makes these presidential elections more important than in the past.''

The two parties campaigned for the general election on promises to boost salaries and cut unemployment, at 17.8 percent the highest in the European Union. They disagree on the extent of tax cuts and on how quickly Poland should adopt the euro.

``We can forget the idea of trying to adopt the euro during this parliamentary term if Kaczynski becomes president,'' Petru said.

Law & Justice won 155 seats in the Sept. 25 election for the 460-seat parliament. Citizens' Platform took 133 seats. The parties pledged in February to work together. Neither won enough votes to form a government on its own.

Of the more than 30 million Poles eligible to vote, 49.8 percent went to the polls today, according to researcher GfK Polonia, the lowest turnout in any presidential election since the collapse of communism 16 years ago.

(Source: Bloomberg)

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