After controversy, the election should not take place before June. Despite criticism, an absentee ballot should now be held. The opposition welcomes the decision to postpone the presidential election.
After massive protests, the presidential election scheduled for Sunday in Poland is postponed. This was announced by the government parties on the Twitter account of the national conservative party Law and Justice (PiS). Despite the corona pandemic, the PiS had so far absolutely wanted to hold the election on Sunday. Therefore, she proposed a pure postal vote, which triggered violent protests.
To justify the postponement, PiS chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his junior partner Jaroslaw Gowin stated, among other things, that the election would probably have been canceled by the Supreme Court. A new date for the ballot box should now be set “as soon as possible”: in any case, the election should not take place before June.
As far as postal voting is concerned, Parliament agreed to postpone a change in the right to vote after the agreement. The PiS amendment stipulates that the election of the head of state due to the coronavirus epidemic will be a pure postal vote. A number of MEPs previously opposed the postal vote and now gave up their opposition: MEPs initially proposed postponing the election by two years and extending President Andrzej Duda’s term until then. Kaczynski refused to do so.
Several former heads of state and government protested against the pure postal vote and argued that the PiS project violated the constitution. You spoke in a statement of a “pseudo choice”. The choice would be “neither general nor fair,” criticized the signatories, which included ex-presidents Lech Walesa, Aleksander Kwasniewski and Bronislaw Komorowski.
Experts believe that adhering to the election date on Sunday would have increased President Andrzej Duda’s chances of being re-elected. One of the reasons is that the opposition cannot conduct an election campaign because of the ban on the assembly. This benefits the incumbent, who in turn is regularly present in the media with speeches on the fight against the corona virus. Duda is closely allied with PiS boss Kaczynski.
Opposition pleased
The Polish opposition has responded positively to an agreement in the government camp. “This is good news that the election will not take place on May 10, and probably not in May at all,” said Jan Grabiec, spokesman for the largest opposition coalition, the KO, on Thursday.
His party had long called for the election to be postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic, Grabiec said. The presidential candidate of the conservative peasant party (PSL), Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, also welcomed the decision. The national-conservative governing party PiS (law and justice) has acknowledged its mistake and announced that it is unable to hold the election.
(APA / AFP)
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