republic

Capital:

name: Warsaw
geographic coordinates: 52 15 N, 21 00 E
time difference: UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC during
Standard Time)
daylight saving time: +1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last
Sunday in October

Administrative divisions:

16 provinces (wojewodztwa, singular - wojewodztwo); Dolnoslaskie
(Lower Silesia), Kujawsko-Pomorskie (Kuyavia-Pomerania), Lodzkie,
Lubelskie (Lublin), Lubuskie (Lubusz), Malopolskie (Lesser Poland),
Mazowieckie (Masovia), Opolskie, Podkarpackie (Subcarpathia),
Podlaskie, Pomorskie (Pomerania), Slaskie (Silesia), Swietokrzyskie,
Warminsko-Mazurskie (Warmia-Masuria), Wielkopolskie (Greater
Poland), Zachodniopomorskie (West Pomerania)

Independence:

11 November 1918 (republic proclaimed)

National holiday:

Constitution Day, 3 May (1791)

Constitution:

adopted by the National Assembly 2 April 1997; passed by national
referendum 25 May 1997; effective 17 October 1997

Legal system:

based on a mixture of Continental (Napoleonic) civil law and
holdover Communist legal theory; changes being gradually introduced
as part of broader democratization process; limited judicial review
of legislative acts, but rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal are
final; court decisions can be appealed to the European Court of
Justice in Strasbourg; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction with
reservations

Suffrage:

18 years of age; universal

Executive branch:

chief of state: President Lech KACZYNSKI (since 23 December 2005)
head of government: Prime Minister Donald TUSK (since 16 November
2007); Deputy Prime Ministers Waldemar PAWLAK (since 16 November
2007) and Grzegorz SCHETYNA (since 16 November 2007)
cabinet: Council of Ministers responsible to the prime minister and
the Sejm; the prime minister proposes, the president appoints, and
the Sejm approves the Council of Ministers
elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term
(eligible for a second term); election last held 9 and 23 October
2005 (next to be held in the fall 2010); prime minister and deputy
prime ministers appointed by the president and confirmed by the Sejm
election results: Lech KACZYNSKI elected president; percent of
popular vote - Lech KACZYNSKI 54%, Donald Tusk 46%

Legislative branch:

bicameral legislature consists of an upper house, the Senate or
Senat (100 seats; members are elected by a majority vote on a
provincial basis to serve four-year