Strange things are happening in the world; strange things always do. Alone in the world, Poland appears to have gone off at a tangent. An electorate of more than 30 million people is due to elect a new President by postal vote ~ the first such poll in the nation’s history.
The political playing field must have been suitably manipulated in favour of the government’s preferred candidate, the incumbent President Andrzej Dua, who is seeking a second term.
By staging an improvised postal poll during a pandemic, the Law and Justice party is indulging in ruthless opportunism.
Two case-studies on deferment come readily to mind. The crucial local elections in West Bengal, upon which hinges the course of rural and municipal governance, were postponed during the first phase of the lockdown; it is now doubtful whether these elections will be held this year after all.
At another remove, mayoral and local council elections in Britain, scheduled to be held this week, have been deferred for a year.
Delaying the election would have been far more preferable given the current state of affairs in Poland, most critically the health of the voter. The date of the election was fixed before coronavirus struck the world.
By insisting that it will go ahead, the government in Warsaw, helmed by the rightwing Law and Justice party has taken the maxim ~ “never let a crisis go to waste” ~ to a new level of electoral opportunism. Nonetheless, it has caused a flutter in the roost.
The decision to hold an improvised postal election is being contested by all the opposition parties. Key allies in Law and Justice’s own ruling coalition have also opposed the move; the deputy prime minister, Jaroslaw Gowin, resigned in protest last month.
The simplest explanation for the government’s determination to press ahead is a glaring instance of what has been called by the ruling party’s detractors as “naked opportunism” in a former Communist country. Ever since it assumed power in 2015, Law and Justice has incurred a dubious distinction of “playing fast and loose with democratic norms”. Ahead of next Sunday’s election, the party has calculated that in times of national crisis, populations tend to rally round the government.
In April, it rushed a bill through Parliament to allow a postal ballot poll, ignoring a legal prohibition on rule changes less than six months before an election. President Andrzej Duda, who is seeking a second term, has enjoyed a high-profile role in the government’s strategy to combat Covid-19. The candidate for Civic Platform, Poland’s main opposition party, has endorsed a mass boycott of the election while, confusingly, staying in the race.
Unsurprisingly, opinion polls suggest that Mr Duda is set to win by a landslide. The psephological chaos.