Poles will vote in a July 4 run-off in an election forced by the air-crash death of Polish president Lech Kaczynski, pitting his conservative twin brother against the ruling liberals?candidate.
Near-complete results from the national electoral commission showed that Polish parliamentary speaker and acting president Bronislaw Komorowski took 41.22 percent of the vote in Sunday? first round.
Conservative opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who launched an audacious bid to replace his brother and close political ally, came second with 36.74 percent.
PHOTO: EPA
Turnout was just short of 55 percent.
The snap election came after Lech Kaczynski died on April 10 in western Russia along with 95 others including his wife Maria and top political and military figures, leaving Poland reeling.
Their plane was heading to a memorial ceremony for thousands of Polish officers killed by the Soviets during World War II.
The campaign was also overshadowed by floods that killed 24 people and drove thousands from their homes.
BY LAW
Under Polish law, a run-off between the top two candidates must be held if none tops 50 percent in the first round of voting.
?n life, as in [soccer] and all sports, it? extra time that? the most difficult,?Komorowski, 58, told supporters.
?et? be wide awake and mobilize our strength and all our energy for the final stretch,?he said.
Kaczynski, 61, urged his camp to brace for the run-off, which pre-election polls suggested Komorowski would win.
?he key to victory is faith, the conviction that it is possible and necessary to win. We must win for our homeland, for Poland,?he said.
KINGMAKER?
While the two were far ahead among 10 candidates on Sunday, center-left social democrat Grzegorz Napieralski scored a surprise 13.7 percent, setting him up as a potential kingmaker.
Both Komorowski and Kaczynski had warm words for Napieralski as the count was underway.
Polls, however, showed that two-thirds of his voters would back Komorowski.
Seven other candidates each took less than 3 percent.
Among them, with 1.04 percent, was ultra-Catholic Marek Jurek, who urged his voters to switch to Kaczynski.
While, like more than 90 percent of Poles, both Komorowski and Kaczynski are Catholics, sections of the country? powerful church have in the past swung behind the latter? party.
The election is crucial for the Kaczynskis?euroskeptic conservative Law and Justice party, which, after losing office in a 2007 parliamentary election, counted on the late president? veto to hamper the liberal government? policies.
On the other hand, victory for Komorowski ?a close ally of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk ?would boost their market-friendly Civic Platform party before parliamentary elections due late next year.
Under the Constitution, Komorowski became acting president after the crash.
Even before it, he was preparing to challenge Lech Kaczynski? bid for a second term in an election originally scheduled for later this year and was tipped to win.
Despite shared roots in 范olidarity, which brought down Poland? communist regime in 1989, Civic Platform and Law and Justice are archrivals.
Lech Kaczynski was elected president in 2005, coming from behind in the second round to beat Tusk in a run-off marked by mudslinging beyond the norm in Polish politics.
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