Election Withdrawn, News Media Calls Lawyers

Michael Hedges May 8, 2020 - Follow on Twitter

A day or two of quiet time for reflection ahead of or during election voting is provided by several countries. Generally, there are two objectives; quiet last minute campaign ads and deter possible sway in behavior from reporting or polling results. Most of this is, at least, well intentioned. It’s the execution that matters.

The first round of the next presidential election in Poland had been scheduled for May 10th, second round - if necessary - on May 24th. On Wednesday this week (May 6) the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and a small coalition partner announced they would not be participating. Opposition political parties - still with something of a voice - had been criticizing the proposed postal-only vote during the coronavirus lockdown. With that - and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski unwilling to declare a state of emergency to force a new election date - holding the May 10th vote had became “a logistical and legal nightmare,” observed Balkan Insight (May 7).

Officially, May 10th remains election day. With the PiS party’s withdrawal, it is now likely the Poland’s Supreme Court, controlled by PiS appointees, will invalidate the election, allowing the Speaker of the Upper House (Sejm) to set another date. That might be set for sometime this summer.

Poland has that media silence rule. On Thursday, the National Electoral Commission announced the rule would not apply between now and whenever the Supreme Court meets to invalidate the vote. Most Polish news media are wary of reporting on it all for fear of attracting large fines.

There is good reason. “Formally, election silence has been in force since midnight,” offered former National Electoral Commission chairman Wojciech Hermelinski to radio channel RMF FM (May 8). “Nobody canceled Sunday's voting, the election calendar is running, the campaign may last until midnight. The (Electoral Commission) announcement does not have the force of generally applicable law.

“We talk about it, we are looking for a method to be able to inform what is going on in public life,” said Onet editor-in-chief Bartosz Weglarczyk to press.pl (May 8). “I can't imagine pretending to be in election silence. But there are legal reasons, the threat of a high fine. I don't want to risk being at the political mercy of the prosecutor's office. At the end, it is the politicians who decide whether to pursue us for breaking the election silence.”

Tabloid Fakt, daily Rzeczpospolita and online news portal Wirtualna Polska indicated through spokespeople general unwillingness to defy the law as it stands. “We never know if there will be an election or not and we will not know it until the last moment,” said Rzeczpospolita deputy editor-in-chief Michal Szuldrzynski. “We assumed that there would be election silence, but that does not mean that there are no political topics in the issue, because election silence is a ban on agitation. We don't have interviews in which someone defends a candidate, we don't have interviews with the candidates themselves. However, there are various political or satirical texts related to the policy or evaluation of the campaign in this issue.”

“Election silence despite the lack of voting is similar to madness,” said major daily Gazeta Wyborcza deputy editor-in-chief Mikolaj Chrzan. “We are still talking to our lawyers, but we probably will not follow it.”

See also...

• Hot Topics - Elections and Media

• Hot Topics - Media in Poland