Supreme Court confirms validity of Poland's presidential election
The Supreme Court has recognised the validity of the election of Karol Nawrocki as the president of Poland.
The Supreme Court's Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber, in its full composition, confirmed the validity of the election of Karol Nawrocki as the president of Poland on June 1, reads a resolution taken by the chamber on Tuesday evening and read out by its President Krzysztof Wiak.
Wiak explained that a huge number of election protests filed with the court had not strengthened the significance of their charges and that the confirmed irregularities had not affected the overall voting result.
He also said that it was impossible to take into account motions for a recount of all votes in all electoral commissions in Poland as the Electoral Code regulations did not envisage such a possibility. He added that it was possible to review ballot papers only in concrete district electoral commissions where irregularities had been confirmed.
Wiak underlined that a vote cast by every voter was equally important and that everything should be done to avoid any irregularities. But he also said that a candidate who won more votes in a runoff election becomes president.
"The totality of circumstances clearly indicates that Karol Nawrocki received more votes than Rafal Trzaskowski," Wiak concluded.
In the second round of the presidential election on June 1, right-wing historian Karol Nawrocki narrowly defeated Rafal Trzaskowski, the Warsaw mayor, but the difference was relatively small, as Nawrocki won 50.89 percent of the vote while Trzaskowski took 49.11 percent. The difference in the number of votes totalled 369,591.
The announcement of the resolution was preceded by a court session during which their positions had been presented by Head of the National Electoral Commission (PKW) Sylwester Marciniak, Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar and Deputy Prosecutor General Jacek Bilewicz.
Bodnar had earlier stated that the Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs should not deal with the validity of the election. Poland's ruling Civic Coalition (KO) has questioned the constitutional legitimacy of the chamber established under the previous government led by the socially-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party.
Judge Maria Szczepaniec said that over 54,000 election protests had been filed with the court. Twenty-one had been considered as justified but they had no impact on the election result, she said.
The decision now paves the way for Nawrocki to be sworn into office and to replace outgoing President Andrzej Duda, whose second and final term ends on August 6. (PAP) at/mf
