Polish opposition wants probe despite snap polls

WARSAW, Aug 15 (Reuters) The Civic Platform (PO), Poland's biggest opposition party, said today it would push for a parliamentary inquiry into a controversial sting operation before or after snap elections.

PO leader Donald Tusk said on TVN24 his party would demand ''full clarification of those scandalous events and circumstances''.

In July, the government's anti-corruption police searched the offices of then farm minister and deputy premier Andrzej Lepper, arresting two of his associates on suspicion of illegally re-zoning inexpensive farmland into pricey recreational plots.

Lepper demanded a parliamentary probe into what he called a frame-up, allegedly orchestrated by the government to discredit him and provide a pretext for his sacking last month.

''PO wants an investigative commission set up during the current parliamentary term or, if that proves impossible, in the next,'' Tusk told news channel TVN24.

But deputy senate speaker Krzysztof Putra, a ranking PiS politician, said an investigation in the present term would effectively mean postponing early elections.

''If we are to respect the law, the work of such a commission might push forward the date Poles vote by at least nine months,'' he said on TVN24.

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party last week agreed to early polls in October or November, two years ahead of schedule, after its coalition with two smaller parties collapsed amid acrimonious bickering and mutual accusations.

The PiS trails behind PO in opinion polls, but is believed to prefer early elections it may lose to the embarrassment of having its top officials face a commission.

Reuters RSA RN2335