[Asien Namdar, Cnn Anchor:] One hundred and eight nations gathered in Poland this week to launch a global effort to help fragile new democracies and strengthen old ones. Most of the delegates signed a document dubbed the Warsaw Declaration, fashioned after the 1975 Helsinki Accords on Human Rights. Poland's president hosted the conference, as he kicked off his campaign for re-election. TVP reports on the beginning of that presidential race.
[Barbara Grad, Tvp:] Off they go. As the speaker of the parliament sets a date of the presidential election for October 8th, the race has officially begun. Mr. Kwasniewski, the incumbent, went to the southern town of Kirza to press the flesh.
[Aleksander Kwasniewski, Polish President:] I launched my campaign at the he place I started and won five years ago. This place has been some kind of magic for us. It's a lucky place.
[Grad:] With 70 percent approval, Aleksander Kwasniewski is far ahead of all of his contenders. Andre Alahovski, the former finance and foreign minister, comes second with about 10 percent. Let's move on the concrete things is his slogan. Lech Walesa, the legion of Solidarity, commands 5 percent so far. We wish you come out of the legion to reality, he was urged by his followers of the Christian Democratic Party. Yes, I take the challenge, Walesa promised, adding that Poland as it is now is certainly not the one he and the other Solidarity leaders suffered in prison for. He will solicit for support under the slogan, the black is black and the white is white. In the meantime, the Solidarity bloc nominated its current leader, Marian Chupetsky, as its official candidate. Chupetsky united Poland's center-right parties under Solidarity's umbrella and led them to victory in the 1997 parliamentary election. Yet the coalition he has built has recently broken down. [on camera]: If the polls are right, Kwasniewski seems to be out of reach for the contenders. For many of them, the goal is not the presidency itself, but the parliamentary election scheduled for the next year. This is Barbara Grad, Polish Television for CNN WORLD REPORT.