Economics Expert Nominated As New Polish Pm

An economics expert has become the most likely new prime minister of Poland in a surprise development that appears to rule out the possibility of identical twins securing the country's top political jobs.

The centre-right Law and Justice party (PiS), which won the most votes in Sunday's national election, announced last night that Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz was its nomination for prime minister.

The election produced a big swing to the right, with PiS winning around 27% of the vote while its allies, the Civic Platform (PO), won around 24%. The parties confirmed today that they were to begin coalition talks.

The nomination of Mr Marcinkiewicz for prime minister came as a surprise after many analysts had predicted that the PiS leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, would put himself forward.

Mr Kaczynski's identical twin Lech is a candidate in Poland's presidential election on October 9.

Speculation that the 56-year-old twins might occupy Poland's top jobs was not dampened by Jaroslaw Kaczynski saying ahead of Sunday's poll that he would not seek the prime minister's job if his brother became president.

The twins, who have similar right-wing views and are tough on law and order policy, formed PiS in 2001. Most Poles find it hard to tell them apart, although Lech Kaczynski has a distinguishing mole on his left cheek.

It was unclear to what extent Mr Marcinkiewicz's nomination was due to Jaroslaw Kaczynski's qualms about becoming prime minister, but analysts said it was also possibly designed to speed up the coalition talks. The announcement was welcomed by PO.

Lech Kaczynski, the current mayor of Warsaw, is currently second in the opinion rolls in the race for the presidency. A poll released today put the PO's candidate, Donald Tusk, in the lead with 42% support compared with Mr Kaczynski's 35%.

Sunday's national election constituted a heavy defeat for the ruling left-wing Democratic Left Alliance (DLA) and the outgoing prime minister, Marek Belka.

Mr Marcinkiewicz vowed today to build a "strong and stable" centre-right government.

"It is most important now to agree with the Civic Platform on a joint coalition programme," he told Polish state radio. "First the programme and then choosing the people that will implement it, and everything according to the principle of balance because only that will guarantee success."

It remains unclear exactly when coalition talks will start, but Mr Marcinkiewicz and another PiS leader, Ludwik Dorn, went to the presidential palace today for talks with the outgoing president, Aleksander Kwasniewski.

Mr Marcinkiewicz criticised the 2006 budget draft approved yesterday by Mr Belka's government. He described it as a "budget of stagnation that lacks means for investment".

He said his team will would put matter right and try to trim the budget deficit.

Poland is the largest of the eight central and eastern European nations that joined the European Union in 2004. Its new government could have a big say on the bloc's budget reform and the future pace of enlargement.