Election plans in Poland amidst coronavirus pandemic cause friction
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Opposition candidates for Poland’s upcoming presidential election are squabbling over how to stop the ballot because of the pandemic, but the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party isn’t giving ground.
It’s part of a growing political battle caused by the ruling party’s refusal to back away from the May election date.
The leading opposition candidate Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska on Sunday suspended her campaign to protest the government’s refusal to delay the vote from May 10 in light of the coronavirus crisis.
“Today in Poland there is no other task than the battle with the epidemic and its consequences,” Kidawa-Błońska, of the opposition Civic Coalition party, said in an open letter. “In these circumstances, organizing presidential elections would be a criminal action.”
She called on her rivals to take the same step and said if the election isn’t delayed then it should be boycotted — setting off an internecine attack among opposition candidates — as incumbent President Andrzej Duda, supported by PiS, rides high in opinion polls.
Other opposition candidates aren’t going along. Independent Szymon Hołownia, who has also suspended his campaign and says PiS’s dogged effort to stick to the electoral calendar despite the pandemic is “madness,” said Sunday that a boycott means a loss of civic rights.
PiS has good political reasons for plowing on. Duda is far ahead in opinion polls thanks both to a gather-round-the-flag sentiment common during crises, and because opposition candidates can’t easily campaign during ever-tighter lockdown measures.
The party insists the vote can go ahead despite a lockdown in place until April 11. Health experts are worried that holding a vote would lead to a spike in coronavirus cases, as happened when France went ahead with municipal elections on March 15.
