Polish PM seeks new reform mandate in election

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland voted in a parliamentary election on Sunday that could give Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centre-right Civic Platform four more years in power to pursue gradual economic reforms and preserve political stability.

Civic Platform, which guided Poland through the 2008-2009 financial crisis and favours closer ties with the rest of the European Union, would be the first party to hold on to power in an election in Poland since the collapse of Communism in 1989.

Opinion polls show no party will win an outright majority and another four years of coalition government are likely in the country of more than 38 million people after Civic Platform's four-year alliance with the Peasants' Party.

The polls put outspoken ex-premier Jaroslaw Kacynski's conservative-nationalist Law and Justice party in second place. His return to power after four years in opposition could strain ties with Russia and Germany but is widely considered unlikely because his party would struggle to forge a coalition.

Tusk, 54, portrays himself as a guardian of stability. A mild-mannered pragmatist with a common touch, he has eschewed radical economic reforms, avoided talk of austerity despite a large budget deficit and promised to continue cautious reforms.

Law and Justice has promised more state involvement in the economy, including a bank tax and higher taxes for the rich, and vowed to wind down large-scale privatisation.

"PO (Civic Platform) should continue to govern because they have done a great deal. Just look at the roads," said Maria Mlodzikowska, an 80-year-old retired physical education teacher, after voting in Warsaw.

But Jan Mazur, a 74-year-old retired printer, said he had voted for Law and Justice for the sake of his grandchildren.

"I don't want them to grow up in a country which owns nothing because the PO has sold everything off under the pretext of what they call privatisation," he said.

More than 30 million people are eligible to vote. They will elect 460 lawmakers in the lower house, the Sejm, and 100 to the upper chamber, the Senate.

Voting started at 7 a.m. (6a.m. British time) and ends at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. British time), when the first exit polls will be released. The official result will take several hours to come in.

Police said two polling stations in the eastern city of Lublin were closed because of a bomb scare but there were no other reports of problems across the NATO member state.

ECONOMIC CHALLENGES

Ratings agencies say they could downgrade Poland if it does not swiftly act to reduce the budget deficit, expected to reach 5.6 percent of gross domestic product this year, and the public debt, expected to reach 53.8 percent of GDP this year.

Economists doubt Law and Justice would be able to meet the challenge. The current coalition, however, has failed to deliver on promises of far-reaching liberal market reforms.

The EU's largest former communist economy has lost some of its lustre since 2007 when Tusk took power, but Poland was the only EU state to maintain positive growth through the turmoil of 2008-2009 and growth is estimated at 4 percent this year.

The Euro 2012 soccer championship, which Poland will co-host with Ukraine, should also boost demand.

If Tusk wins but cannot forge a strong coalition with just the Peasants' Party, he may have to turn to Palikot's Movement, a new party that supports gay rights, abortion and legalisation of soft drugs for support.

Led by Janusz Palikot, a wealthy businessman and former Civic Platform lawmaker, the party has criticised Poland's powerful Catholic Church.

"I support Palikot ... at least he'll be a breath of fresh air in the stiflingly stodgy Sejm," said Krystyna Celinska, a 28-year-old graphic artist.

FOREIGN POLICY DIFFERENCES

Tusk favours deeper EU integration despite the euro zone debt crisis and has sought stable ties with Russia and Germany, its largest and most powerful neighbours.

Kaczynski, 62, deeply distrusts the countries which carved up Poland under a Nazi-Soviet pact before World War Two and also raised eyebrows during the election campaign by repeating in a new book his view that Berlin is trying to subdue Poland.

"I back PiS (Law and Justice) because they put Poland's interests ahead of those of Brussels or Berlin," said Maria Derkacz, a translator in her early 60s.

Tusk has continued the rapprochement with Moscow, which held sway over Poland for decades after World War Two, despite a setback since a plane crash last year killed then-President Lech Kaczynski, Jaroslaw Kaczynski's twin, and 95 others.

Moscow says mistakes by Polish pilots were the sole cause of the crash. Warsaw believes Russian ground controllers also played a role in the tragedy and Kaczynski says Tusk and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin bore some responsibility.

"I don't much like Tusk but he will prevent Kaczynski getting into power," said Andrzej Antczak, a 42-year-old communications specialist.

(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska and Timothy Heritage; Editing by Alison Williams)

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