Polish Lawmakers Back Mixed Way of Voting in Presidential Ballot

(Bloomberg) -- Poland’s lawmakers approved a mixed way of voting in the delayed presidential election, backtracking from a plan to hold the ballot only by mail for the first time in the country’s history.

The new rules, which allow voting at polling stations or by mail, were approved by the lower house of parliament late Tuesday. Still, the plan leaves questions about the ballot’s legitimacy as rules are being changed on the go.

Poland’s ruling party is seeking to mend its image after it delayed the May 10 presidential election just days before it was due to take place to quell concerns that holding it at the height of the coronavirus pandemic via untested mail-in ballots may not be free or fair. No new date has yet been set.

“The ticking bomb has been disarmed at the last minute,” said Jacek Haman, an election expert at Batory Foundation, a think-thank in Warsaw.

International election monitors said the initial postal-only rules created possibilities for fraud and weakened “public trust in the administration of elections.”

Since taking power in 2015, Law & Justice has been accused by the European Union of steering away from the bloc’s democratic standards, particularly for its judiciary overhauls that clipped independence of courts. The fast-tracked election legislation gives vast powers over preparations to parliament’s lower house Speaker Elzbieta Witek, a key ruling-party official.

The party is seeking to hold the election as soon as possible and before President Andrzej Duda’s term ends on Aug. 6. He has a massive lead over other candidates in polls.

The opposition, which controls the Senate and which has criticized the legislation, can block the bill’s approval for up to 30 days. That will further delay any clarity on when the election will take place.

“The election must be democratic and safe,” Upper House Speaker Tomasz Grodzki said Wednesday, adding that he intends to invite ruling-party leaders “to work out a compromise that will enable us to work on this bill.”

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