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Poland is a Republican Representative Democracy under a Parliamentary System . Executive Power is exercised by the government, which consists of a council of ministers led by the Prime Minister . Its members are typically chosen from a majority coalition in the lower house of parliament (the Sejm ), although exceptions to this rule are not uncommon. The government is formally announced by the president, and must pass a motion of confidence in the Sejm within two weeks. Legislative Power is vested in both the Government and the two chambers of parliament, Sejm and Senate . Members of parliament are elected by proportional representation, with the proviso that non-ethnic-minority parties must gain at least 5% of the national vote to enter the lower house. Currently six parties are represented. Parliamentary elections occur at least every four years. The President , as the Head Of State , has the power to veto legislation passed by parliament, but otherwise has a mostly representative role. Presidential elections occur every 5 years. The political system is defined in the Polish Constitution , which also guarantees a wide range of individual freedoms. The Judicial Branch plays a minor role in politics, apart from the Constitutional Tribunal , which can annul laws that violate the freedoms guaranteed in the constitution. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS In the autumn of 2005 Poles voted in both parliamentary and presidential elections. September's Parliamentary Poll was expected to produce a coalition of two centre-right parties, PiS ( Law And Justice ) and PO ( Citizens Platform ). During the increasingly bitter campaign, however, PiS launched a strong attack on the liberal economic policies of their allies and overtook PO in opinion polls. PiS eventually gained 27% of votes cast and became the largest party in the sejm ahead of PO on 24%. The out-going ruling party, the socialist SLD, achieved just 11%. Presidential Elections In October followed a similar script. The early favourite, Donald Tusk , leader of the PO, saw his opinion poll lead slip away and was beaten 54% to 46% in the second round by the PiS candidate Lech Kaczyński (one of the twins, founders of the party). Both elections were blighted by low turn-outs: only 51% in the second and deciding round of the presidential election and just over 40% in the parliamentary election. The suggested cause of the low turnout is popular disillusionment with politicians. Coalition talks ensued simultaneously with the presidential elections. However, the severity of the campaign attacks and the willingness of PiS to court the populist vote had soured the relationship between the two largest parties and made the creation of a stable coalition impossible. The ostensible stumbling blocks were the insistence of PiS that it control all aspects of law enforcement: the Ministries of Justice and Internal Affairs, and the special forces; as well as the forcing through of a PiS candidate for the head of the Sejm with help of several smaller populist parties. The PO decided to go into opposition. PiS then formed a minority government with the previously little-known Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz as Prime Minister. This has since relied on the tacit and rather stable support of smaller populist and agrarian parties ( PSL , Samoobrona , LPR ) to govern. The new government has enjoyed quite strong public support (as is, in fact, generally common in the first few months after an election), while the popularity of the populist parties giving it support has significantly waned. With this background, a parliamentary crisis appeared to loom in January 2006 , with these small populist parties fearing that PiS was about to force new elections (on which they would lose out) by using the pretext of failing to pass the budget within the constitutional timeframe. However, this crisis appears to have abated. EXECUTIVE BRANCH
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