Poland looks past emotion in poll to decide new president

Poland's interim president Bronislaw Komorowski took a surprise lead in the country's presidential election.

The Polish parliament's speaker seemed to have overcome the emotional vote expected to propel Jaroslaw Kaczynski into office to replace his twin Lech, killed in a plane crash in Russia two months ago.

But the first round of voting yesterday failed to establish a clear winner with Mr Komorowski, 58, short of the 50 per cent needed for outright victory. The two leaders will now go head-to-head in a vote on July 4, without the eight other candidates.

Mr Kaczynski, 61, addressing supporters last night, made a rare reference to the plane crash, saying that the campaign has been anything but normal. He said: "It's an election which is the result of a huge catastrophe, a huge misfortune, a huge tragedy."

Partial official results, based on more than 94 per cent of polling stations reporting, showed Mr Komorowski had 41.22 per cent of the vote and Mr Kaczynski 36.74 per cent. Full results are expected today.

Mr Komorowski told supporters at a campaign night party in Warsaw that he felt "happy and fulfilled" knowing he has the "support and the trust of millions of voters in Poland".

"In life as in football, overtime is the most difficult. Let's not forget that and let's mobilise all our forces for the grand finale on July 4," he said.

The centre-Left candidate, Grzegorz Napieralski, was in third place and the final outcome will hinge to a large degree on who picks up his votes.