Lech Walesa

Two of Poland’s former presidents cast their ballots today, as did almost all the presidential candidates in Sunday’s presidential election.

Poland’s first freely elected president and Solidarity leader Lech Walesa cast his vote in the early afternoon, commenting that frequency seemed to be low, affecting his estimates about how the candidates would fare in the first round.

Lech Walesa commented before the elections that he expected Bronislaw Komorowski’s result to stand between 53-56 percent, “but if the frequency is so low then I’m beginning to make bad political judgement,” the former president said.

The Solidarity leader traditionally voted after attending Holy Mass, and voted in the dean’s office of Gdansk University with his wife, his son Jaroslaw, currently a Civic Platform MEP in Brussels, and one of his daughters.

Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former president who is the only person to have held two terms of the presidency in Poland’s Third Republic, said that the candidate “who wins the election is charged with great responsibility.”

“We are choosing a president for important times,” Kwasniewski underlined, adding that people “should go and vote, because if participation in the election dwindles, democracy withers with it.”

Aleksander Kwasniewski also commented on the polling frequency, saying that “anything over 50 percent is a success,” although his estimates pointed to around 60 percent.

Asked on who Kwasniewski voted for, the leftist president answered that his vote comes “as no surprise.”

All of the presidential candidates attended polling stations today with family members to cast their ballots today.

Only one presidential candidate did not cast his ballot. In Jozefow, a suburb of Warsaw, Janusz Korwin-Mikke visited a polling station with his wife. The libertarian candidate refused to cast his vote, however, as he complained that there were no women on the ballot list. (jb)

Source: PAP

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