The conservatives in power in Poland abandoned their idea of presidential election only by correspondence and proposed Monday that citizens could choose: either to go to the polls, or to vote by correspondence. Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party (PiS) has tabled in parliament a bill intended in particular to annul a previous law which had imposed compulsory voting by post for all due to the coronavirus pandemic. Criticized, including due to the possibility of fraud linked to this voting system, this law was supposed to allow the first round of the presidential election to be held on Sunday, May 10, but this calendar could not be respected for legal and organization.
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The new PiS bill allows candidates registered for the May 10 poll to run again without having to collect at least one hundred thousand signatures of support. It also allows new candidates to come forward. Under the terms of this text, which should be adopted without difficulty on Tuesday, any voter who wishes to vote by correspondence must request it no later than 12 days before the vote. Those who are prevented from going to a polling station because they are placed in quarantine will be given additional time to express their wish to vote by mail, up to five days before the vote.
The new date for the presidential election will be fixed within two weeks at the latest by the president of the lower house. Voting must take place within a maximum period of 60 days from its decision. Theoretically, this could allow it to be held in the second half of July, but Polish commentators expect rather on June 28 or July 12. The PiS has so far wished to organize the election as quickly as possible. This strategy is motivated in particular, according to analysts, by the conviction that a postponement would be unfavorable to its candidate, the outgoing president Andrzej Duda, currently leading the polls.