Voters in Poland began casting their ballots on Sunday in the first round of the tight presidential election that had to be postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak. The incumbent right-wing leader, Andrzej Duda, is campaigning for his re-election that could determine the future of his conservative government that supports him.
Polling stations opened on early Sunday and will close at 9 pm with an exit poll expected as soon as the polling ends. A total of ten candidates are vying to replace Duda, however, he local opinion polls have suggested that a liberal from the main opposition party Civic Platform, Rafal Trzaskowski, who is also the mayor of Warsaw, will enter a neck-and-neck runoff on July 12.
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If opposition’s Trzaskowski manages a victory, it would deal a blow to the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) government. PiS party has relied on its ally Duda to endorse polarizing legislation, especially the controversial judicial reforms.
The Law and Justice Party has maintained that changes are needed to end the judicial corruption in the country. Meanwhile, the European Union and critics insist they erode democracy and judicial independence just three decades after Poland shed communism.
Moreover, this week, US President Donald Trump, who regards the populist government of PiS as a key European ally, gave Duda his blessings. On Wednesday, Trump invited Duda to White House as the first foreign leader to visit since the pandemic outbreak began, just a few days before the election day.
The vote was originally scheduled for May but postponed due to the pandemic and a new hybrid system of postal and conventional voting was put in place in a bid to stem the further spread of the respiratory disease.
As of Sunday, Poland has recorded 33,000 confirmed coronavirus cases with nearly 1,400 deaths, according to official data. Meanwhile, the country’s health minister also accepted that there are likely more than 1.6 million undetected cases in Poland, a country of 38 million people.
The incumbent president has promised to defend the ruling party’s raft of popular social benefits, including extra pension payments and a child allowance, a key factor behind the conservative populist winning the second term in a parliamentary election in October.
As the economic fallout of the coronavirus is set to send the country into its first recession since communism’s demise three decades ago, the bread and butter issues are weighing heavily on voters’ minds.
Duda has also echoed the conservative attacks on western values and LGBT rights. He has also promised to use the contacts and experience he gathered as a former European affairs minister to fight hard for a fair slice of the next European Union budget, and to mend tattered relations with Brussels.
The PiS, along with Duda, have, in many ways, upended Polish politics by stoking tensions with Brussels and wielding influence through public broadcasters and state-owned firms.
Political experts view the vote as a critical juncture for Poland, a second term for Duda would mean the conservative government would make even more controversial changes while defeat in polls could unravel PiS power.
