Despite the corona pandemic, Poland should elect a new president on May 10. The national conservative PiS government wants to save the date at all costs. The election should only take place by post. Opponents of this solution are not only found in the opposition.
Warsaw (dpa) - The Polish parliament has approved the proposal of the national conservative government party PiS to hold the presidential election on May 10 as a pure postal vote. The majority of deputies voted in favor of a corresponding bill.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin resigned after failing to convince the government camp of his idea to postpone the election by two years.
For more than three weeks in Poland, severe restrictions on freedom of movement and public life have been used to protect against the spread of the corona virus. Representatives of the opposition have therefore been calling for the important election to be postponed for some time. The PiS still adheres to the scheduled date - its candidate, incumbent Andrzej Duda, leads in all surveys.
In order to save the date, PiS uses postal voting, which has so far hardly been used in Poland. The post will not be able to deliver the documents for the more than 30 million voters in due time because there are not enough postmen due to the illness, said Borys Budka of the largest opposition coalition coalition (KO). "Decency is a foreign word for you. You want to get to your destination via dead bodies".
This solution was also controversial in the government camp. In the morning, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin announced his resignation. Already on Friday, Gowin had advocated postponing the presidential election by two years by constitutional change and extending the term of office of head of state Duda - provided that he no longer runs afterwards. But with this proposal he could not prevail against the powerful PiS boss Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
The bill introducing postal voting is now going to the Senate. The opposition dominates in this second chamber of parliament. However, the Senate only has an advisory function. The Pis can override its proposals with an absolute majority in the Sejm, the first chamber of Parliament.
