2020-05-13 09:20 update: 2020-05-13, 17:07
Photo PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Poland's Sejm (lower house) on Tuesday night passed a 2020 presidential vote bill after a swift rejection of an opposition motion to scrap the legislation. The bill is meant to replace a recently passed all-postal vote bill that raised widespread controversy.
Two hundred and forty-four MPs voted in favour of the draft law, 137 were against and 77 abstained.
The bill, prepared by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and filed with the Sejm on Monday evening, yet again changes the voting rules, making the 2020 presidential ballot a mixed one, meaning that citizens will be able to cast their votes either at polling stations or by post.
A previous 2020 vote bill, signed into law by President Andrzej Duda just last week, made the ballot an all-postal one amid the coronavirus epidemic.
Presidential candidates registered for the cancelled May 10 elections will be permitted to run in the newly-scheduled vote provided they re-register. New candidates will also be able to join the race.
According to the draft law, voting card and voting package formats will be specified by the State Electoral Commission (PKW).
Those who wish to use the postal mode will have to notify a relevant election commissioner at least 12 days before the election day, and voters under quarantine or isolation - up to two days before the ballot.
The Sejm speaker will have the right to change "the dates of performing electoral activities" upon consultation with the health minister and the PKW to accommodate for the epidemiological situation in Poland or its regions.
The health minister, upon consultation with the PKW, will have the power to change the method of voting into an all-postal one in localities where the epidemiological situation warrants such a decision.
Polish citizens abroad will be able to vote at polling stations or by post, but the latter option will not be available in countries where the postal vote is impossible due to organisational, technical or legal reasons.
Those who opt for the postal vote will have to notify their consul up to 12 days before the election day.
During the Tuesday debate, lawmakers, including the bill's authors, filed several dozen amendments in total. Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski filed his own four amendments, mainly related to health and safety. Twenty-one amendments filed by PiS and one by the Left were accepted.
Fierce debates continued throughout Tuesday evening, with the opposition accusing PiS of including a number of arbitrary provisions in the draft in order to ensure the electoral victory of its candidate, the incumbent Andrzej Duda.
PiS argued the bill was designed to make the presidential elections possible in the extraordinary circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic and to ensure a new president is elected before August 6, the end of Duda's current term.
The bill will now go to the Senate, which has 30 days to process the legislation. (PAP)
jd/ mf/
