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 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 consisting 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 terms), and a lower house, the
Sejm (460 seats; members are elected under a complex system of
proportional representation to serve four-year terms); the
designation of National Assembly or Zgromadzenie Narodowe is only
used on those rare occasions when the two houses meet jointly
elections: Senate - last held 25 September 2005 (next to be held by
September 2009); Sejm elections last held 25 September 2005 (next to
be held by September 2009)
election results: Senate - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by
party - PiS 49, PO 34, LPR 7, SO 3, PSL 2, independents 5; Sejm -
percent of vote by party - PiS 27%, PO 24.1%, SO 11.4%, SLD 11.3%,
LPR 8%, PSL 7%, other 11.2%; seats by party - PiS 155, PO 133, SO
56, SLD 55, LPR 34, PSL 25, German minorities 2
note: two seats are assigned to ethnic minority parties in the Sejm
only

Judicial branch:
Supreme Court (judges are appointed by the president on the
recommendation of the National Council of the Judiciary for an
indefinite period); Constitutional Tribunal (judges are chosen by
the Sejm for nine-year terms)

Political parties and leaders:
Catholic-National Movement or RKN [Antoni MACIEREWICZ]; Civic
Platform or PO [Donald TUSK]; Conservative Peasants Party or SKL
[Artur BALASZ]; Democratic Left Alliance or SLD [Wojciech
OLEJNICZAK]; Democratic Party or PD [Janusz ONYSZKIEWICZ]; Dom
Ojczysty (Fatherland Home); German Minority of Lower Silesia or MNSO
[Henryk KROLL]; Law and Justice or PiS [Jaroslaw KACZYNSKI]; League
of Polish Families or LPR [Roman GIERTYCH]; Peasant-Democratic Party
or PLD [Roman JAGIELINSKI]; Polish Accord or PP [Jan LOPUSZANSKI];
Polish Peasant Party or PSL [Waldemar PAWLAK]; Ruch Patriotyczny or
RP [Jan OLSZEWSKI]; Samoobrona or SO [Andrzej LEPPER]; Social
Democratic Party of Poland or SDPL [Marek