Polish lawmakers on Tuesday changed the rules for the country’s controversial presidential election and made it a vote in person at polling stations with an option of voting by mail.
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) insisted the May 10 vote be held as scheduled, and the opposition accused it of putting political gain ahead of public health. Latest opinion polls showed that president Andrzej Duda is set to win reelection by a landslide, capturing more than 50% of the vote.
PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Jaroslaw Gowin, leader of a party in the conservative coalition, last week announced that they had agreed to cancel the vote and set a new date.
On Sunday, polling stations remained closed. The election was neither officially postponed nor cancelled, because the government and opposition were unable to agree on a constitutional and safe solution.
On Tuesday, the opposition threatened to block the rescheduled election plans in the upper house of parliament, the Senate, where they are a majority. The opposition Civic Platform (PO) party accused the ruling coalition of rushing a voting plan through parliament for political gain.
No date for the vote has been set yet. The Parliament speaker must announce the new date before late July.
