Poland’s government should scrap its plan to hold an all-postal presidential ballot next month or risk undermining the country’s democracy, Human Rights Watch warned on Tuesday.
Campaigning for the presidential ballot was paused in early March due to the COVID-19 pandemic but the country’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) has backed maintaining the May 10 election and introduced legislation to create a mail-in voting system. The bill has been backed by Parliament’s lower house and has moved on to the Senate. The second alternative PiS has proposed is to extend the current presidential term from five to seven years.
Human Right Watch condemned both alternatives on Tuesday and called on parliament — held by Pis — to “ensure that the election process is predictable, free, and fair, which may require postponing the voting for a short period.” According to Human Rights Watch, preparations are already underway for the all-postal election to take place despite the legislation not having been approved yet. For the NGO, “given the unprecedented nature of such full-scale mail-in voting in Poland, and the extremely short time frame, it appears very unlikely – if not impossible – that the process will guarantee fairness and transparency.”
The country’s constitution already provides for circumstances in which the government could postpone elections during a public health emergency. Per the constitution, an election can only be held no earlier than 90 days after the end of a state of emergency for public health reasons.
Furthermore, Buras stressed, Poland has no experience of this kind of voting. “Universal postal ballot organised within a few weeks from scratch by an unprepared institution in the midst of a pandemic poses numerous challenges,” he explained. Voter confidentiality and participation would be compromised, he said. “Also, hundreds of thousands of Poles living abroad will not be given the possibility to vote,” Buras added.
The NGO decried the fact that while opposition candidates have paused their campaigning, incumbent President Andrzej Duda, an independent allied with PiS, gets extensive coverage in government-friendly media. It said this “gives him an unfair advantage and raises concerns about all candidates’ ability to campaign freely and fairly.” According to a poll commissioned by the ECFR earlier this month, Duda should win the first round with 65% of votes, primarily because “the opposition’s electorate does not intend to participate” over concerns about the ballot’s legality and the risk to their health, Buras said.
Poland’s right-wing government has repeatedly drawn the ire of the European Commission since 2015 for pushing through legislation that the EU says undermines judicial independence and rule of law. The EU Court of Justice (ECJ) has also repeatedly ruled in the EU’s favour in several court cases opposing the top EU institution to Poland. In June 19, it ruled that Polish legislation lowering the retirement age of Supreme Cout judges was “contrary to EU law”. Earlier this month, the ECJ also ordered Poland to “immediately suspend” the activities of the Supreme Court’s disciplinary chamber, whose members are elected by the Pis-held parliament.
Source: Euro News
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