Warsaw - Poland was preparing Saturday for snap parliamentary elections with more than 30 million Poles eligible to vote, with last-minute opinion polls indicating that the outcome was unlikely to yield a stable majority government. The seventh parliamentary election since the 1989 collapse of communism will see a record number of ex-pat Poles casting their ballots at polling stations in more than 90 countries around to globe, according to Poland's State Elections Commission (PKW). Merchant seamen at sea will also be voting aboard their ships.
Unofficial exit polls will made public after polling stations close Sunday at 8 pm (1800 GMT). The PKW expects to announce official results Tuesday.
The opposition liberal Civic Platform (PO) dominated opinion polls Friday ahead of a midnight campaign blackout leading up to voting Sunday.
The governing Law and Justice (PiS) party ranked second while the left-wing Lid coalition took third spot and the conservative Polish Peasants' Party (PSL) scored 7 per cent, thus surpassing the 5 per cent voter threshold required to enter parliament. Two populist parties and a women's party did not.
Most opinion polls suggest no party will score an outright majority, thus making it likely any future government will involve a coalition. Such agreements, more often than not, pave the way to instable government in Poland.
The October 21 election comes two years early after PiS Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's conflict-ridden minority government failed to forge a stable governing coalition with two smaller populist parties.
Political chaos paved the way to the September 7 self-dissolution of parliament which triggered the election.
The snap ballot also comes amid allegations by opposition politicians and analysts that Kaczynski violated the fundamentals of democracy by using his government's anti-corruption crusade to cover attempts by the secret service and justice ministry to neutralize his political rivals.
The premier has, however, brushed aside these allegations as an unfounded smear campaign aimed at torpedoing his government's effort to eliminate corruption and the grip of so-called "oligarchs," or self-made Polish businessmen, on the state apparatus.
The business-friendly PO is campaigning on promises of boosting entrepreneurship by slashing bureaucratic red tape and introducing a 15 per cent flat tax. The liberals also want a withdrawal of Poland's 900 troops from Iraq and have vowed to improve the absorption of vital EU funding.
Officials in Brussels recently warned Warsaw risks losing billions of euros in subsidies for much-needed highway and public infrastructure projects due to the Kaczynski government's sluggishness in project planning and execution.
