Belka refuses to budge
Prime Minister Marek Belka last week played down any likelihood that he would ask for a confidence vote in his cabinet in April, which if lost, would trigger early polls.
Regardless of an earlier vote, May 5 looks set to sound the death knell for the current government. Parliament will vote then on an opposition motion to shorten its term. However if the ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) party do not back the motion it could fail, which, it seems, will only prolong the inevitable defeat of the SLD at the polls.
Belka and opposition parties have long called for general elections in June, before their October deadline, to end a parliamentary stalemate that left the minority government unable to pass legislation. Some politicians have demanded that Belka preempt the May vote by requesting, and losing, a confidence vote in his cabinet in April, but Belka has refused to play along.
"The Parliamentary Speaker has suggested that he would not put forward such a motion [to a vote]," Belka said. The Prime Minister has already said he plans to resign on May 5, but President Aleksander Kwaśniewski insists that he will not accept the resignation before the European Council summit in Warsaw.
Investors, who are anxiously watching political developments, expect volatile markets and currency instability in the run-up to the vote. (Reuters)
Regardless of an earlier vote, May 5 looks set to sound the death knell for the current government. Parliament will vote then on an opposition motion to shorten its term. However if the ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) party do not back the motion it could fail, which, it seems, will only prolong the inevitable defeat of the SLD at the polls.
Belka and opposition parties have long called for general elections in June, before their October deadline, to end a parliamentary stalemate that left the minority government unable to pass legislation. Some politicians have demanded that Belka preempt the May vote by requesting, and losing, a confidence vote in his cabinet in April, but Belka has refused to play along.
"The Parliamentary Speaker has suggested that he would not put forward such a motion [to a vote]," Belka said. The Prime Minister has already said he plans to resign on May 5, but President Aleksander Kwaśniewski insists that he will not accept the resignation before the European Council summit in Warsaw.
Investors, who are anxiously watching political developments, expect volatile markets and currency instability in the run-up to the vote. (Reuters)
