The Polish presidential vote was originally scheduled for May 10, but it failed to go ahead amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed more than 1,000 lives in this country.
A total of 234 MPs late on Thursday voted to defeat a no-confidence motion put forward by the opposition against Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin, whom it accused of attempting to unlawfully use the country’s postal service to organise a mail-in vote.
Meanwhile, 223 deputies supported the opposition's bid, state news agency PAP reported.
The motion had little chance of succeeding because the country’s governing conservatives hold a comfortable majority in the lower house of parliament.
Opposition politicians claimed that Sasin, who also serves as Poland’s minister for state assets, was responsible for wasting public money by spending millions on the printing of voting slips without legal authorisation.
Sasin, who is in quarantine after coming into contact with a person infected with the coronavirus, argued that all decisions made by state authorities in connection with the failed election "had a constitutional basis."
He also told the house that the May 10 election failed to take place “due to obstruction by the opposition and local governments identifying themselves with the opposition.”
The lower house of Poland’s parliament earlier this month approved plans to conduct the presidential election via a mixed system of postal and traditional in-person voting.
The legislation then went to the opposition-controlled upper house for further debate.
As it stands, the new date for the vote remains uncertain, with parliamentary Speaker Elżbieta Witek expected to make the announcement.
Poland’s conservative leader Jarosław Kaczyński said this week that the country must hold its presidential vote no later than June 28.
A total of 22,964 people have tested positive for the COVID-19 disease in Poland, with 1,043 deaths from the coronavirus so far, public health officials said on Friday morning.
(gs/pk)
Source: PAP