Miller ready to form government after SLD wins overall Sejm majority

Leszek Miller has said he is ready to become Prime Minister, after his party won yesterday's parliamentary elections by a large margin. Asked if he would take the post, Miller said, "If the President gives me this task, then of course I will take it." President Aleksander Kwasniewski told private television TVN earlier that he would ask Miller to form a Cabinet as soon as official results from the ballot were available. Based on exit polls, Miller's Democratic Left Alliance-Labor Union (SLD-UP) coalition, with 44% of the popular vote, won between 231 and 233 seats in the 460-member Sejm. The second biggest of the six parties that will be represented in the lower house will be Civic Platform (PO) with between 12.6% and 13.1% of the vote, giving it a projected 65 or 66 seats. The biggest surprise was the success of Samoobrona led by controversial farmer Andrzej Lepper. The party got around 9.5% of the vote, which means it will have 48 or 49 seats. Another unexpected winner was the Polish Family League (LPR), notorious for its extreme nationalism and non-tolerant Catholicism. which will have between 25 and 27 seats. The big losers were the ruling Solidarity Election Action of the Right (AWSP) and Freedom Union (UW), neither of which managed to achieve the 5% needed to gain representation. The SLD-UP will also dominate the Senate. With 75 seats, it is far ahead of its nearest challenger, Bloc Senat 2001, which won 18 seats. Voter turnout was a low 46%. (Gazeta Wyborcza, on-line edition; Reuters) J.K.