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.