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- WORLD, Page 66World NotesPOLANDInto the Ring
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- Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Solidarity leader Lech
- Walesa have shadowboxed for months over the pace and direction
- of political and economic reform. Now they will battle openly
- as the two main candidates in an election on Nov. 25 that will
- produce Poland's first popularly chosen President.
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- The election was called when General Wojciech Jaruzelski
- decided last month to cut short his six-year term as President.
- Walesa, 47, who has long made no secret of his ambitions,
- immediately declared his intention to run. Mazowiecki, 63, once
- one of Walesa's main advisers, entered the race last week.
- Mazowiecki's announcement ended speculation that he might cede
- the presidency to Walesa in the hope of halting the country's
- growing political polarization. In the end, Mazowiecki was
- swayed by the argument that Walesa, who forced Jaruzelski to
- resign, should not be allowed simply to steamroller his way into
- power. No matter what the outcome, the fight between Walesa,
- the former shipyard electrician, and Mazowiecki, the former
- newspaper editor, ends the alliance between workers and
- intellectuals that helped topple communism in Poland.
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