Tusk warns against hasty claims of election rigging
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned against making too quick assumptions that the recent presidential election was rigged, commenting on reports of voting irregularities at some polling stations.
On June 1, Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) won the ballot against Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski from the main ruling centrist Civic Coalition party, by 50.89 to 49.11 percent in the closest runoff vote in the history of Polish presidential elections.
According to official results announced by the National Electoral Commission (PKW), Nawrocki received 369,591 more votes than Trzaskowski among the 20,844,163 ballots legally cast.
Meanwhile, reports have emerged of a "significant increase" in support for Nawrocki in the runoff compared to the first round at some polling stations across the country.
For example, according to the official results, at one of the stations in Krakow, Trzaskowski won 550 votes in the first round against Nawrocki's 218. But in the runoff, Nawrocki received 1,132, ahead of Trzaskowski on 540, which local media described as an "electoral miracle" and pointed to doubts raised by the sudden change in support.
On Friday, the electoral commissioner for Krakow, Rafal Sobczuk, told PAP that staff at the polling station in Krakow wrongly attributed votes cast for Trzaskowski to Nawrocki. He added the mistake was reported to the city office and is being investigated.
Later on Friday, Tusk took to the X platform to cool down emotions.
"Every reported case of irregularities in vote counting is being checked and analysed. Any possible frauds are being investigated and will be punished... assuming in advance that the elections were rigged does not serve the Polish state," he wrote.
Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski also commented on the reported irregularities in vote counting and said he hopes this will be explained.
"It is important that we know why there was sometimes a 200-percent increase for one candidate in one commission, since even from a mathematical perspective it seems quite improbable," he said.
According to information provided to PAP by the Supreme Court, 21 electoral protests against the presidential vote have been filed there so far. (PAP)
mmr/mf/ grg/
