Kaczynski Falls Short in Bid for Polish Presidency « pidgeonil

A survey for Polish public television showed Mr. Komorowski winning 53.1 percent of the vote compared with Mr. Kaczynski's 46.9 percent. But a survey for Polsat television news showed a much narrower margin, with Mr. Komorowski claiming just 51.1 percent.

"We don't want to create divisions," Mr. Komorowski told a crowd of supporters gathered in central Warsaw. "We want to create unity."

Speaking before Mr. Kaczynski's concession speech, he stopped short of claiming an outright victory, cautioning supporters that they would have to wait until the following day.

Starting in 2006, the Kaczynski twins occupied the two most important positions, president and prime minister, in Poland, which is the largest former Communist country to join the European Union and the NATO alliance. But Jaroslaw Kaczynski lost the post of prime minister in 2007 to Donald Tusk, leader of Mr. Komorowski's Civic Platform party, ending the brothers' unusual dual rule.

The latest election was emotional and unpredictable from the start, when it was moved up by several months after Lech Kaczynski's death. He and 95 others, including his wife and dozens of top political and military leaders, were traveling to the Katyn forest, where more than 20,000 Polish officers were massacred by Stalin's secret police during World War II.

Following that national tragedy, a series of deadly floods swept through Poland in May and June. The government came under sometimes harsh criticism over its response.

Andrzej Rychard, a sociologist at the Warsaw Academy of Sciences, said that Mr. Komorowski had positioned himself less as an independent candidate and more as a strong supporter of government policies, making him susceptible to blame for voter dissatisfaction.

"He presented himself more as a prime minister than as a presidential candidate," Mr. Rychard said.

The election Sunday was the latest showdown between two conservative parties with a history of bad blood - Mr. Kaczynski's more nationalist Law and Justice party and the governing free-market Civic Platform.

A victory by Mr. Komorowski, a pro-European Union moderate, would strengthen the hand of the government. In addition to his position as acting president since the plane crash, Mr. Komorowski is also the speaker of the lower house of Parliament and has said he would work closely with the Mr. Tusk's government to adopt the euro in about five years and end the unpopular military mission in Afghanistan.

Mr. Kaczynski is more skeptical about the European Union and adoption of the euro. A victory and five-year term for Mr. Kaczynski would mean a continuation of the country's divided rule, with a three-fifths vote of Parliament needed to override presidential vetoes of legislation.

Mr. Komorowski was still the leader after the first round of voting, winning 41.5 percent of the vote, with Mr. Kaczynski much closer than expected with 36.5 percent. Both leaders courted voters of the leftist candidate Grzegorz Napieralski, whose 13.7 percent share of the vote would be decisive in the second round.

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Kaczynski Falls Short in Bid for Polish Presidency

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