<p>Billed as the strangest election in Poland’s 21-year post-communist history, it was called after the death of president Lech Kaczynski and much of the country’s political and military elite in a plane crash in Russia on April 10.<br /><br />Exit polls showing the final estimated results will be published after the voting ends.<br />The two frontrunners, both Catholic conservatives espousing family values but divided on many other issues, are far ahead of the other eight candidates in opinion polls. The winner will serve a five-year term as head of state.<br /><br />Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw, a combative eurosceptic, has fought an effective campaign based on calls for solidarity in a time of national disaster, but Bronislaw Komorowski of the centrist ruling party, Civic Platform, looks set to win.<br />Grzegorz Napieralski of the leftist opposition SLD, heir to the once mighty Communist Party, will come a distant third, according to the opinion polls.<br />Komorowski is unlikely to secure the 50 per cent of votes he needs to win on Sunday, however, forcing a runoff on July 4.<br /><br />Around 30 million Poles in a total population of 38 million are eligible to vote. Turnout in the 2005 presidential election was only about 50 per cent and only slightly better, at 54 per cent, in the last parliamentary election in 2007. In Poland, the government sets policy but the president can veto laws, appoints many key officials and has a say in foreign and security policy. Lech Kaczynski irked Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s economically liberal government by blocking some reforms.<br />Tusk believes Jaroslaw Kaczynski as president would continue his brother’s habit of vetoing government bills and also of thwarting efforts to prepare Poland for euro entry.</p>
<p>Billed as the strangest election in Poland’s 21-year post-communist history, it was called after the death of president Lech Kaczynski and much of the country’s political and military elite in a plane crash in Russia on April 10.<br /><br />Exit polls showing the final estimated results will be published after the voting ends.<br />The two frontrunners, both Catholic conservatives espousing family values but divided on many other issues, are far ahead of the other eight candidates in opinion polls. The winner will serve a five-year term as head of state.<br /><br />Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw, a combative eurosceptic, has fought an effective campaign based on calls for solidarity in a time of national disaster, but Bronislaw Komorowski of the centrist ruling party, Civic Platform, looks set to win.<br />Grzegorz Napieralski of the leftist opposition SLD, heir to the once mighty Communist Party, will come a distant third, according to the opinion polls.<br />Komorowski is unlikely to secure the 50 per cent of votes he needs to win on Sunday, however, forcing a runoff on July 4.<br /><br />Around 30 million Poles in a total population of 38 million are eligible to vote. Turnout in the 2005 presidential election was only about 50 per cent and only slightly better, at 54 per cent, in the last parliamentary election in 2007. In Poland, the government sets policy but the president can veto laws, appoints many key officials and has a say in foreign and security policy. Lech Kaczynski irked Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s economically liberal government by blocking some reforms.<br />Tusk believes Jaroslaw Kaczynski as president would continue his brother’s habit of vetoing government bills and also of thwarting efforts to prepare Poland for euro entry.</p>