Youth vote helped swing Polish election

By Dominika Kotowicz

WARSAW (Reuters) - "I hope Poland won't look stupid any more," said Aleksandra Duda, chatting excitedly with high school friends on Monday about the results of Poland's election.

A much higher than expected turnout, especially among young Poles, is widely seen as a factor in the heavy defeat suffered by the conservative and strongly nationalist Kaczynski twins in a parliamentary election on Sunday.

The youth vote helped ensure victory for the centrist and pro-European Civic Platform.

"People won't make fun of us because of the twins any more," said 21-year-old Aga Oszkodar. "We want closer relations with our neighboring countries."

To some extent, the Polish election was a clash of generations.

Core support for Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, whose twin brother Lech is the president, came from among older Poles with bitter memories of communism and the often painful changes that followed.

Supporters of the Kaczynskis' Law and Justice party tended to be particularly devout Catholics and rural voters.

"Law and Justice was ruling with determination," said Helena, 54, a cleaner who did not want to give her second name.

"We'll see what happens next. I think corruption will be back," she said mournfully.

The Kaczynskis' pledge to root out what they call a corrupt post-communist elite found little favor with younger voters. They were also put off by the brothers' clashes with EU allies.

Younger voters have no memory of the communist era or the horrors of Nazi occupation and are enjoy the highest rate of economic growth in decades -- finding new opportunities in Poland's booming cities and the European Union beyond.

The opposition Civic Platform had made a particular effort to target younger voters. Surveys before the election had shown that around 80 percent of them were ashamed of the Kaczynskis' rule.

Low turnout for the 2005 election helped give victory to the Kaczynskis because their most loyal supporters made sure to vote, sometimes with the encouragement of the local priest.

Overall turnout in 2005 was barely 40 percent and the participation of young voters well below that in many areas.

This time, more than 50 percent of 18-24-year-olds voted, not far off the overall figure of 55 percent.

"I think the change will be good for us. We're moving in the right direction," said 18-year-old Duda at the Poniatowskiego High School in Warsaw.