Polish voters oust ruling party

WARSAW, Poland, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Poland’s pro-EU opposition Civic Plarform scored a clear win over the ruling conservative party of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski in general elections.

With most ballots counted, Donald Tusk’s liberal center-right Civic Platform was leading with more than 40 percent of the vote, followed by Kaczynski’s nationalist Law and Justice party with slightly more than 32 percent, Polish Radio said Monday.

Turnout of about 55 percent in parliamentary elections Sunday was 15 percent higher than in 2005 and was the highest since the fall of communist rule in 1989, the radio said.

The defeated Law and Justice party had ruled during the past two years in a coalition government of minor parties. But that coalition collapsed in August, forcing early elections.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski, twin brother of Jaroslaw, is to stay in his office until 2010.