2024-07-25 21:38 update: 2024-07-25, 21:40
Mateusz Morawiecki. Photo PAP/Leszek Szymański
The former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki did not act within the law and abused his powers during the organisation of the 2020 postal presidential elections, according to the draft report of the parliamentary investigative commission into the failed vote.
Poland's presidential election was initially scheduled to take place on May 10, 2020, in the middle of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The Law and Justice (PiS) government made preparations for an entirely postal ballot, including printing and preparing to post the ballot papers, even before the relevant legislation allowing the election to take place became law.
On April 16, 2020, Morawiecki instructed the state postal services operator Poczta Polska to take and implement "necessary action aimed at preparing for the elections of the President of the Republic of Poland in 2020 by post, due to the pandemic. He also obliged the Polish Security Printing Works (PWPW) to print postal ballots.
The election eventually went ahead as normal and was finally held on June 28, with PiS-ally Andrzej Duda winning a second term in office in a run-off vote held on July 12.
After taking power over from PiS, Poland's new government set up a special commission to probe the failed postal elections, whose cost, according to Poland's Supreme Audit Office (NIK) totalled PLN 76.5 million (EUR 18 million).
In its report published on Thursday, the commission addressed the activities of various state bodies involved in the preparation of the 2020 postal vote.
Presenting the findings regarding Morawiecki, MP Anita Kucharska-Dziedzic from the Left party said that by taking the decisions of 16 April 2020, Morawiecki "self-proclaimed himself as the body authorised to issue orders related to the process of conducting the elections for the President of the Republic of Poland."
She argued that, in this case, the former prime minister did not act within the law and abused his powers. In her opinion, there is also much to indicate that the authorities generally abused the regulations introduced in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic, and the organisation of postal elections was just one such example.
According to the commission’s findings, the appropriate action on the part of the former head of government would have been to wait until the act on special rules for conducting elections came into force or to declare a state of emergency, which would legally allow for the postponement of the ballot.
"In the opinion of the commission, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki risked breaking the law, being aware of the risk of his actions. All the more so because these risks and the prime minister's potential liability were outlined in the legal opinion of the Legal Department of the Prime Minister's Office (KPRM), of which the prime minister was supposed to be informed by KMPR's head," Kucharska-Dziedzic said.
The commission's chair, Magdalena Filiks from the ruling Civic Coalition, presented part of the report concerning the role of
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of PiS in the 2020 postal vote plan.
She said that, based on the analysis of witness testimonies and other evidence, the commission concluded that the decision to hold the 2020 presidential elections by postal vote was made by the PiS leader.
"It should be noted that he was not a member of the government, only an ordinary MP, the president of the largest political party forming the government coalition...did not have any competences that the Constitution of the Republic of Poland grants to the Speaker of the Sejm or the Prime Minister," Filiks continued.
"As an MP, a public official exceeded his powers, using his position as the president of Law and Justice," she added.
In her opinion, "Kaczynski's actions did not serve to protect the public interest, but were detrimental to it" and his "only motivation... was the desire to hold elections at all costs and uphold Andrzej Duda's presidency." (PAP)
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