Pro-market lawmaker Donald Tusk and conservative Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski headed for a new phase yesterday in their struggle for Poland's presidency after neither won outright victory in a first round of voting.
According to the first returns, Tusk, the smooth-mannered deputy parliament speaker, gained an edge over the outspoken Kaczynski in Sunday's vote. Tusk vowed to next take his campaign to small towns and villages to win over rural voters ahead of the runoff election on Oct. 23.
With 91.5 percent of the vote counted, 35.8 percent of voters had backed Tusk, while 33.3 percent voted for Kaczynski. With no candidate surpassing 50 percent, the result forces a second round between the two.
Poland's electoral commission said final results would be released yesterday afternoon.
The presidential race in the formerly communist country centered on the Europe-wide issue of just how far to go in sacrificing welfare state protections for the promise of an economy with fewer social benefits but faster growth and job creation.
Tusk wants a 15-percent flat tax rate on personal and corporate earnings, while Kaczynski favors a greater role for the state in protecting the social safety net and promoting Roman Catholic values. He wants tax cuts, but would keep the system under which high earners pay more -- and would give deductions for big families.
"I trust deeply that my mild character and optimism will be a stronger weapon than blows," Tusk told reporters after the first exit polls showed him with the edge, alluding to the increasingly bitter tones ahead of the voting.
Kaczynski said he would look for new supporters among those who had voted for left-wing and populist candidates eliminated in the first round.
"I am certain that in the long run ... we will win," Kaczynski said.
"The vision of a Poland of solidarity is more attractive to millions of Poles, to millions of Polish families, than a vision of a liberal Poland," he said.
Poland's jobless rate of nearly 18 percent is the highest in the 25-nation EU.
The two candidates share roots in the anti-communist Solidarity movement.
However, their increasingly bitter campaign risks complicating the ongoing negotiations between the two men's parties to form a new coalition government, which will be led by Kaczynski's Law and Justice party.
That party, led by Kaczynski's identical twin, Jaroslaw, edged Tusk's Civic Platform into second place in Sept. 25 parliamentary voting. A new government is not expected to be in place until the end of this month.
The election of either Tusk or Kaczynski would cement the sharp decline of the ruling former communists, who were soundly defeated in the parliamentary election.
They were dragged down by a string of scandals and a failure to slash unemployment.
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