Elections get the go-ahead

Local elections will be held on November 12 as announced by Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, after the Constitutional Tribunal dismissed opposition charges that the amended election law was unconstitutional.

"I can't really say more at the moment than I'm happy the decision was not a political one and that it was based on legal tenets," the Prime Minister told a press conference immediately after the verdict was made public.

The motion to annul the law enabling the running parties to form electoral blocks was submitted by Deputies from Civic Platform (PO), Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the Peasants' Party (PSL).

The opposition also questioned the speed at which the amendment was passed and the neglect of the due 14-day vacatio legis - the time span between the announcement of the new act and its entering into force.

SLD's Witold Gintowt-Dziewałtowski stressed during the tribunal's meeting that it is inadmissible to pass a new electoral law only a month before the actual voting, as it misinforms citizens and can lead to a high rate of electoral absenteeism. He also claims that forming party blocks will politicize local governments and reminded that the law was passed without social consultations.

But the representatives of the ruling coalition did not agree with such reasoning. "The mechanism of forming party blocks favors cooperation. It encouraged cooperation not only between the parties that backed the change but also among the opposition parties," Marek Jurek (PiS), the Speaker of the Sejm, told PAP.