Parliament in Poland approves presidential election by letter

The Poles will not elect their new head of state on Sunday. The vote is not canceled, but it does not take place. A legal trick unites the disputed government camp. But the conflict doesn't end there.

Warsaw (dpa) - After the agreement on a postponement of the presidential election in Poland, the parliament in Warsaw voted for a change in the right to vote.

The amendment by the national conservative governing party PiS stipulates that the election of the head of state due to the coronavirus epidemic should be held as a pure postal vote.

There was initially no clarity about a new date for the election. Representatives of the Polish opposition rated it positively that the vote should not take place next Sunday as originally planned.

There had been great controversy in Poland over the election date. The opposition called for a postponement until autumn because the protective measures against the coronavirus epidemic made an election campaign impossible. The PiS initially insisted on May 10 and wanted to save the date by voting only the letter. This required a change in the right to vote - but part of the PiS group did not want to support it.

On Wednesday evening, PiS chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski and the former vice prime minister Jaroslaw Gowin agreed on a solution. Because the Polish constitution made it difficult to postpone the election day that had already been set, they found a legal loophole. The election is simply not supposed to take place on that day - and the Supreme Court can subsequently void it. After that, the President of Parliament should set a new election date.

In return, the group of rebellious PiS MPs around Gowin gave up their resistance to the so-called "envelope law" and voted in parliament for it. "Yesterday we worked out a solution that is good for Poland. It guarantees safe, fully democratic and transparent elections," said Gowin. The presidential election will no longer take place in May, but at a later date. This would also allow the government to deal again with the struggle for the life and health of Poles and the revitalization of the Polish economy after the lockdown.

Opposition representatives welcomed the fact that the election is now being postponed. However, they criticized the way in which the solution was found. "Not the constitutional court, not the parliamentary majority, not the election commission, but only PiS chairman Kaczynski," said Robert Biedron, the presidential candidate from the Left Alliance. This shows the "social grievance" in Poland.

The PiS saw its mistake, said the candidate of the conservative peasant party PSL, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz. "The government was unable to hold (the election) and has to apologize to the Poles," said the politician.

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders wrote on Twitter that he had registered the postponement of the election and was pleased with the debate that had taken place in Poland on the subject. The EU Commission will continue to closely monitor the organization of the vote. Because of the controversial judicial reforms of the PiS, Poland has been in conflict with the EU Commission for years, which initiated several proceedings against Warsaw before the ECJ.

Draft law to change electoral law (Polish)

Tweet from Didier Reynders