WARSAW -- Polish voters threw out the ruling Solidarity Party and restored the ex-communists to power, but seemed on Monday to have left them short of the outright majority they wanted to revive the economy and speed EU entry talks, Reuters said.

Voters angered by four years of bungled reforms, rising unemployment and corruption allegations ejected Solidarity from Parliament in Sunday's general election, casting the descendants of those who overthrew communism into the political wilderness.

The ex-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) were euphoric when exit polls suggested the political upheaval would make them the first party able to form a government without a coalition partner since the 1989 transition to democracy.

But revised projections on Monday gave them around 41 percent of the vote, at least 10 seats short of an outright majority, dashing hopes they can quickly undertake the tough budget and social reforms commentators say Poland needs.

Tough coalition talks now appear to lie ahead for the SLD after an election that has radically changed the political landscape in central Europe's largest country.

In place of Solidarity are three parties that did not even exist a year ago and several fringe populist groups which won more than a quarter of the vote by appealing to catholic nationalism and the large impoverished rural population's sense of alienation.

Firebrand rural campaigner, Andrzej Lepper, who led violent farmers' protests two years ago, won a stunning third place with his "self-defence" group.

Analysts worry he and other populists could use their strong parliamentary position to focus anti-European Union sentiment, whipping up opposition to the compromises needed to gain entry by 2004 alongside front-runners Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The SLD, which has fashioned itself as a modern Social Democratic Party, ruled from 1993-1997 in a frequently turbulent coalition with the Polish Peasants Party (PSL), and commentators see them as the natural choice as partners for the SLD again.