Ruling coalition maintains lead says opinion poll

Poland's ruling United Right coalition would win an election held now with 34.5 percent of the vote but would be unable to secure a majority, a recent survey by the United Surveys pollster has shown.

The main opposition grouping, the centrist Civic Coalition, would come second with 31.2 percent, followed by the Third Way, a coalition formed by Poland 2050 and the Polish People's Party (PSL) for this autumn's general election, which got 9 percent.

Also taking seats in the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament, would be the far-right Confederation and the Left parties, supported by 7.8 and 7.1 percent of respondents, respectively.

Other groupings would fall below the 5-percent parliamentary threshold.

The poll results would give the United Right 196 seats in the Sejm (lower house of parliament), the Civic Coalition (KO) would get 175, the Confederation party 28, the Third Way 36, the Left 24, and other groupings one.

This would leave the United Right short of absolute majority, even if it formed a coalition with Confederation.

In contrast the three opposition committees (KO, Third Way and Left) would have a total of 235 seats gaining a majority in the 460-seat Sejm.

The computer-assisted survey was run on August 18-20 for the Wirtualna Polska news website on a selected group of 1,000 Poles who had declared their intention to vote in the coming elections.

Poland will hold parliamentary elections on October 15.