Poles to vote in early election

By Matthew Tostevin

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poles vote on Sunday in a snap parliamentary election that could cost the ruling Kaczynski twins their hold on government in the European Union's biggest former communist country.

Opinion polls suggest a centre-right opposition party might do best in the vote, with plans to speed up economic reform, pull troops out of Iraq and rebuild relations with EU allies that have suffered under the strongly nationalist brothers.

But the race could still be close.

Polls before campaigning ended on Friday put the opposition Civic Platform between 4 and 17 points ahead of the conservative ruling Law and Justice Party. They gave the opposition party up to 47 percent support.

The 58-year-old Kaczynskis, Prime Minister Jaroslaw and President Lech, have run the country of 38 million during two years of growing prosperity but constant political turbulence.

The last coalition government collapsed in September amid infighting over a corruption investigation, prompting the prime minister to push for a parliamentary election two years early. The president does not face an election until 2010.

Their drive to root out what they call a corrupt post-communist elite has been at the heart of the Kaczynskis' campaign. Rivals accuse them of exploiting the fight against graft to smear opponents.

OLD FOES