Poland's election - will cleaner politics be the winner?

Ahead of this weekend's elections most Poles think the result is a foregone conclusion. The current left-wing minority cabinet has been implicated in some well publicized corruption scandals including allegations of bribes to change media laws and shady privatisation deals. So, cleaning up corruption became a central theme of the election campaign.

Photo: CTK

According to opinion polls, long before the parliamentary elections ordinary Polish voters appeared ready for change. A vast proportion of the electorate was fed up with sleazy corruption scandals associated with the former left wing administration. Two parties rooted in Solidarity, the one-time anticommunist movement, the center right Civic Platform and the conservative right Law and Justice party have long made plans for a coalition government. Both parties are all for stubbing corruption in the bud. But they couldn't agree less on free market economics.

The liberals are for a flat tax, while the conservatives have higher social insurance benefits in mind. The Civic Platform's frontrunner in Warsaw is Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. This popular former governor of the National Bank of Poland is convinced that her party's policies will bring Poland out of double digit unemployment:

"Countries which adopted a more liberal approach are much more successful than those countries that adopted more socialist visions in the past. Our program is not only for the rich but also for unemployed people, because in Poland we have high unemployment, about 18 percent, so we would like to reduce taxes, reduce the cost of labor and introduce a flat tax. We think that it increases the contribution to the budget and it means that there are more incomes, more revenues."

The balance of power in the next coalition is to be shared by the conservative Law and Justice party. Adam Bielan, one of its senior members, thinks that the time has come to right past wrongs and clean up Poland's corrupt image:

"We call it the Fourth Republic. We think that our country should be completely rebuilt. Our geopolitical situation is quite good but the main problems are internal. We think that corruption is a big problem both on the highest level in the government but also on the local level."

Ordinary Polish voters may now be focusing on the right wing's anti-corruption drive, but analysts wonder to what extent they are ready to support painful market reforms that the liberals advocate.

"They would like to reach the development through employment. We think that first it's development and then you can create more jobs."

"The Civic Platform is a classical liberal party. Their proposal of flat tax is not acceptable for us because we think that 25 years after Solidarity was born we also need more solidarity now and we are now afraid that with these proposals real populist parties like Self Defense 'Samoobrona' could win the next general election. So it could be quite dangerous for the stability in Poland."

Many Polish voters are hoping that deep rooted traditions of solidarity are alive and well and not just empty election rhetoric.

"PiS (Law and Justice), I don't like this party. I think it's too conservative. It doesn't go forward, it's economic program - I don't think it's going to work."

"I think the Citizens Platform is the most liberal party here in Poland because other parties are too conservative for me."

"I think that for the last 4 years the left wing corruption is not good for Poland."

But change on Poland's political scene is unlikely to stop here. The country is still in for presidential elections in two weeks from now. Again a conservative and a liberal candidate are the two strongest contenders.