Zero turnout as Poland holds ‘ghost’ elections

WARSAW: Poland’s election day on Sunday (May 10) will be one for the history books as polling stations remain closed and turnout will register zero due to a political crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The EU member of 38 million people has found himself in the strange situation of “Twilight Zone” in which the presidential vote is not formally postponed or canceled, because the government and the opposition were unable to agree on a solution constitutional and safe.

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“We are in a fog of legal absurdity,” Warsaw-based political scientist Stanislaw Mocek told AFP, echoing the concern and widespread scratching.

The government “should have declared a natural disaster to legally postpone elections” under the constitution.

The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party has explained its refusal to do so by saying that the Polish coronavirus situation is not serious enough to warrant the move.

The party has also hinted that if it declared a natural disaster, multinational corporations present in Poland would demand huge amounts of compensation that the state would be hard-pressed to pay.

But the liberal opposition and many observers also see another reason why the government was established on the May 10 date, despite opinion polls showing that three out of four Poles wanted a postponement.

The opposition, which has long called for a delay over concerns that a free, fair and safe election is impossible under lockdown, believes PiS wants the ballot to be held as soon as possible so that its ally and incumbent Andrzej Duda wins.

The president is the current favorite and could secure a second term in the first round with 50 percent of the vote, but his support will likely decline once the economic effects of the pandemic are felt.

Last month, the PiS-controlled parliament passed a law stating that elections will be held by postal vote only in an attempt to calm health concerns while keeping the date.

But the opposition-controlled senate sat on the legislation for weeks before rejecting it, leaving the government with no time to organize the elections.

On Wednesday, the PiS and its allied allied party announced that the poll would be declared void after the fact.

“After the date of May 10, 2020 and the Supreme Court annuls the elections as expected in light of the fact that the vote will not have taken place, the Speaker of Parliament will announce a new presidential election for the first available date” they said. he said in a statement.

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