Poles Take a Sharp Right in Election, Exit Polls Say

Polish voters appeared to take a sharp turn to the right Sunday, with exit polls showing that they had swept out of power former Communist leaders tainted by corruption accusations and had handed an election victory to conservative parties that promised more jobs, lower taxes and clean government.

Exit polls for Polish public television showed the anti-corruption Law and Justice Party leading with 27% support and the pro-market Civic Platform a close second with 24%. The two groups, which have their roots in the Solidarity labor movement, together appeared set to win at least 295 seats in the 460-member Sejm, the powerful lower house of parliament.

They also were expected to control the 100-seat upper house, with the exit polls showing that together they would win more than 80 seats.

The two parties, which were running neck and neck in polls before the election, promised to rule together in coalition, with the top job of prime minister going to the group with the most votes.

Voter turnout, estimated at 40% by the exit polls, was among the lowest since Poles overthrew communism in 1989.

The ruling Democratic Left Alliance, which had struggled in preelection surveys just to get more than the 5% of the vote required to win any seats in parliament, performed better than expected, capturing 11%, according to exit polls. The remainder of the vote was split among smaller parties.

The Democratic Left Alliance, which came to power in 2001 and presided over Poland’s entry to the European Union, has seen its support plummet as a string of corruption scandals ensnared some of its leaders and the unemployment rate climbed to almost 18%.

“We have won. Everything shows we have won,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of Law and Justice, told supporters. “We have won as a party, and what’s more important, we have won as a program, as a certain idea for Poland, and this should turn out to be decisive.”

Law and Justice -- whose candidate for president is Kaczynski’s twin, Lech -- calls for gradual economic change by lowering taxes and offering incentives for job creation. It sees a stronger state role in the economy than does the pro-business Civic Platform and supports the preservation of many welfare benefits.