By Henry Srebrnik, [Fredericton, NB] Daily Gleaner
The
COVID-19 pandemic has already caused one country to postpone an
election. On May 6, Poland announced that the country’s presidential
election, which had been scheduled for May 10, would
be postponed until June 28 – or even later, if necessary.
In early April, Poland’s conservative ruling
alliance faced the risk of a split after a junior partner refused to
support allowing a presidential election despite the coronavirus
pandemic.
But a more liberal junior party, the Accord, said it was unrealistic for the election to proceed and proposed a postponement of two years.
It is allied with the PiS as part of the informal United Right coalition, which also includes the Catholic nationalist United Poland (SP).
The alliance has been in power since 2015, and is opposed by the Civic Coalition, led by the liberal Civic Platform (PO). It wanted the election to be held in May 2021.
On April 30, nine former Polish prime ministers and presidents urged voters to boycott the planned presidential election, arguing that the ballot, to be held by post, could be unconstitutional and did not guarantee voter confidentiality.
“The procedure of voting by post in this form and time, as is proposed by the ruling party, are pseudo-elections. We will not take part,” they declared in a joint statement.
“The Constitution allows for a state of emergency which would allow for moving the election term while maintaining political stability.”
The group included Lech Walesa, who helped overthrow Communism as head of the Solidarity trade union movement. Former European Council president and Polish prime minister Donald Tusk of the Civic Platform and some opposition presidential candidates also said they would not take part in the May poll.
Tusk said a government plan to hold the vote via a postal ballot was insufficient to mitigate safety concerns in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, and accused the PiS of subverting the constitution.
Human Rights Watch also urged Warsaw to reconsider. “Poland’s voting process should protect voters during the pandemic. It’s no solution to rush through a potentially flawed voting system,” contended Lydia Gall, a senior researcher at the organization.
Due to the uproar, the election was delayed. It was a setback for the PiS. President Andrzej Duda, who won the 2015 election, is allied with the PiS.
The party needs his support for its conservative agenda which the European Union says subvert the rule of law.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, has launched a legal case against Poland for what they consider an attempt to muzzle judges.
Duda in February signed into law a bill that would allow for the punishment of judges that criticize the government’s reforms of the judicial system.
It also prohibits judges from being politically active and requires them to make public their membership in civil society organizations.
EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders maintains that it “undermines judicial independence and is incompatible with the primacy of EU law.”
Duda’s main opponent will be the Civic Platform’s Rafal Trzaskowski, the current mayor of Warsaw.
The president is elected by an absolute majority of valid votes. If no candidate succeeds in passing this threshold in the first round, a second round is held with the two candidates who received the largest shares of the vote.
Duda is likely to win again but the gap is narrowing. A poll of decided voters conducted May 26-27 by the Instytutu Badan Pollster showed that in a two-way contest, Duda led Trzaskowski 51.3 to 48.6 per cent.
The country had been a model economy in the past
decade. But the pandemic has had a major impact. By the beginning of
June, Poland had recorded 24,395 cases
of COVID-19 and 1,092 deaths.
It will push Poland into recession for the first
time in almost 30 years -- something even the global financial crisis of
2008 did not manage to do. It has the PiS worried.
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