Poles voted Sunday in presidential elections after a lacklustre campaign focused on national security and social issues, with incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski expected to win, but not without a struggle.
The 62-year-old historian, who was elected in 2010 and is close to the governing centrist Civic Platform (PO) party, appears unlikely to secure a second five-year term without a run-off vote on May 24.
While Komorowski has focused on the national security challenges Warsaw faces amid heightened tensions with Moscow over the Ukraine crisis, analysts say his rivals are trying to appeal to disenchanted voters by pledging to lower the retirement age and to bring taxes down.
Komorowski urged Poles to get out to the ballot box as he voted Sunday in central Warsaw. Voting got underway at 7 am with exit polls due after closing at 9 pm. Komorowski has lost considerable steam in opinion polls - from almost 50 percent support a few months ago to less than 40 percent days before the ballot - while main rival Andrzej Duda is just shy of 30 percent backing.
Warsaw construction worker Slawomir said his ballot went to Duda, a 42-year-old lawyer running for the opposition conservative Law and Justice (PiS).
"I'd rather see the president occupy himself with the everyday problems of average Poles. Instead all the talk is about security and the Russians out to get us," the 47-year-old told AFP in central Warsaw, declining to reveal his surname.
Duda, who can also count on support from the Solidarity trade union, backs Poland's powerful Catholic Church's opposition to in-vitro fertilisation, unlike Komorowski. High social insurance premiums and the governing PO's unkept promises on tax reforms for small businesses have also undermined support for Komorowski. Poland is also gearing up for a parliamentary election this fall with early opinion polls pegging the governing PO only narrowly ahead of its main rival(PiS).
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