WARSAW — Poles voted on Sunday for a successor to President Lech Kaczynski in an election that will shape the pace of economic reforms and set the tone for Warsaw's ties with its European Union partners and Russia.
Billed as the strangest election in Poland's 21-year post-communist history, it was called after the death of Kaczynski and 95 other people, including senior political and military officials, in a plane crash in Smolensk on April 10.
The two frontrunners, both Catholic conservatives espousing family values but divided on many other issues, are far ahead of the other eight candidates in opinion polls. The winner will serve a five-year term as head of state.
Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw, a combative Euroskeptic, has fought an effective campaign based on calls for solidarity in a time of national disaster, but Bronislaw Komorowski of the ruling centrist party Civic Platform looks set to win.
Many Poles fear that there could be political deadlock if Kaczynski were elected and say Komorowski would be a more moderate and less confrontational president.
"I voted for Komorowski because he is not dividing society. He does not dwell on history but looks to the future and is concerned about the economy, unemployment and wants to develop Poland's foreign relations," Michal Nadratowski, a 34-year-old gym instructor, said as he voted in Warsaw.
Komorowski is unlikely to secure the 50 percent of votes he needs to win on Sunday, however, forcing a runoff on July 4.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski served as prime minister briefly from 2006 to 2007, when his nationalist views, in particular his deep suspicion of Germany and Russia, put severe strain on Poland's relations with its neighbors and also with the European Union.
By contrast, Komorowski, a father of five and scion of the old Polish aristocracy, shares Prime Minister Donald Tusk's ambition to bring Poland into the European political mainstream, a goal that includes adopting the euro as soon as is economically feasible.
Komorowski, as speaker of parliament, became Poland's acting president on Lech Kaczynski's death.
The crash triggered an upsurge of sympathy for Jaroslaw, a bachelor who was close to his brother. This factor, and an image makeover that has seen him tone down his often harsh rhetoric, has helped him narrow the gap with Komorowski.