Poland's powerful Catholic Church has called on its followers to vote in 21 October legislative elections.
The call was made in a letter that was read by bishops at mass throughout this overwhelmingly Catholic country.
Without specifically mentioning which party to back, the church nonetheless stressed that believers should support those with opinions similar to their own, or at least are not contrary to the Catholic faith or to the moral principles of Catholicism.
The appeal comes just eight days before an election for which polling agencies predict starkly contradictory results.
One end-of-week survey by the PBS polling institute gives the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) of the ruling Kaczynski twins 38% of the vote, compared to 33% for the liberal Civic Platform (PO).
But another poll taken at the same time by the TNS OBOP institute put the PO ahead of the PiS, by 39% to 33%, respectively.
A third party, the centre-left LiD alliance earned 13% and 15% of the vote, in the two respective surveys.
Poland's church regularly urges its believers to cast their ballots without much success.
Turnout in elections is among the lowest in Europe, registering just 40% in the 2005 legislative vote.
