POLAND: Centre-right candidate Donald Tusk takes the lead in Poland's presidential elections.

Record ID: 858177

  • Title: POLAND: Centre-right candidate Donald Tusk takes the lead in Poland's presidential elections.
  • Date: 10th October 2005
  • Summary: WIDE SOT TRAFFIC ON STREET NEWSPAPERS; CLOSE UP FRONT PAGE SHOWING THE WINNER OF THE FIRST ROUND OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS, DONALD TUSK, OF THE CIVIC PLATFORM PARTY, NEXT TO THE HEADLINE 1:0; NEWSPAPER FRONT PAGE SHOWING TUSK AND HIS RIVAL, THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR THE LAW AND JUSTICE PARTY, LECH KACZYNSKI, WITH THE PERCENTAGES THEY WON; CLOSE UP OF PHOTO OF KACZYNSKI WITH PAN ONTO CLOSE UP OF TUSK; PERCENTAGES WHICH THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES WON (5 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 25th October 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland
  • City:
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVAC6BG1OZWHO8ALCR7LKKURHM4L
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Poland's free-market enthusiast Donald Tusk won most votes in presidential elections on Sunday (October 9), putting him in the leading position for an October 23 run-off against conservative Lech Kaczynski, exit polls showed. Two exit polls gave Tusk around 38 percent of the vote, a five to six-point lead over runner-up Kaczynski, the Warsaw mayor who campaigned hard on a promise of a "moral revolution" and a return to Christian values in the new member state of the European Union (EU). Tusk's failure to secure the outright majority some opinion polls predicted a month ago means the race to succeed outgoing leftist President Aleksander Kwasniewski must go to the second round. Tusk and Kaczynski were well ahead of the other 10 candidates, cementing a swing to the right in Poland after their parties, heirs to the pro-democracy Solidarity movement, trounced the ruling left in parliamentary polls last month. "I would like to thank very much all of those who voted at all. I know very well that it is very hard to vote for politicians in Poland today, it is not a very pleasant task," Tusk told a cheering crowd at his campaign headquarters. Kaczynski showed himself in a fighting spirit. "Today I would like to express hope and even confidence. That in the second round of the elections, the fourth republic will achieve victory," he said. Far-left populist Andrzej Lepper, feared by the financial markets, came third with around 13 percent of the vote. Marek Borowski, a Social Democrat, got some 10 percent, despite an endorsement from the outgoing president, a fellow reformed communist who could not run after two terms in office. On the streets of Warsaw residents said the result was much as they had expected. "What did I count on? I expected a second round but I was still hoping that it will end on one," said one woman. "These elections were predictable," said one man. "As a Warsaw resident I should say that Mr. Kaczynski will win but I suspect that it will be Tusk," he said. Another man, on his way to work said the election went as he expected. "Although, I was counting on more votes for Kaczynski," he said. The presidential rivalry between former allies Tusk and Kaczynski has complicated efforts by their parties to form a coalition government and agree a program Poland needs to revive growth and cut unemployment. jd/mt
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