Eight out of the ten presidential candidates in the June 20 election took part in a debate organized Wednesday night at Warsaw University.

Neither Law and Justice’s Jarosław Kaczyński nor SLD’s Grzegorz Napieralski, two of the three leading candidates took part in the debate.

The debate touched on policies covering security, foreign policy and history.

Although the debate met with a positive response on the part of the students, it also roused mixed feelings. Participants complained that there was no discussion between the candidates, what they said could be read on their webpages, that answers were often not to the point, and there was not much substance to them.

Possibly, a date will be set this Thursday for a discussion between the two main contenders, Civic Platform’s Bronisław Komorowski and Law and Justice’s Jarosław Kaczyński.

The first round of the election is set for June 20. Today is also the last day for those voters who plan to be travelling on the date, to collect certificates allowing them to vote away from home. Local authorities inform that they have been issuing thousands of such certificates and that interest has far exceeded that in the previous elections in 2007.

Turnout in the presidential election is by some expected to be highest in years, topping 49 percent. (ek)

For more of our election coverage check out our Poland Decides web page.

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