Polish president vetoes universal access to postal voting due to concern over election interference

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

President Karol Nawrocki has vetoed a bill that would have allowed any voter in Polish elections to submit their ballot by post rather than doing so in person at a polling station.

The president expressed concern that postal voting creates an “unacceptable risk” of foreign interference in ballots sent from abroad. He also warned that it allows “pressure from third parties” on how voters cast their ballot.

Currently, postal voting is available in three cases: if a voter has a certification showing that they have a “moderate” or “significant” disability under Polish law, if they are over the age of 60, or if they are in medical quarantine or isolation.

Last month, parliament approved a bill proposed by MPs from the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), Poland’s main ruling party, that would have allowed any voter, in Poland or abroad, to vote by mail in parliamentary and presidential elections if they registered to do so in advance.

The measure received the approval of the Polish Electoral Commission (PKW), the state body responsible for managing elections, reports Business Insider Polska.

It was supported in parliament by parties in the KO-led ruling coalition but was opposed by the right-wing opposition, which raised concern that postal voting could make electoral fraud easier.

Given that Nawrocki is aligned with the opposition and has regularly clashed with the government, that led to speculation that he would exercise his right to veto. On Thursday, the president confirmed that he had done so.

“While efforts to promote participation in elections are generally merited, the unregistered mailing of electoral packages abroad, as outlined in the bill, poses a serious risk, as it makes the process dependent on the quality of services provided by postal operators in many countries,” wrote Nawrocki.

“In today’s world, where hybrid threats and interference in the electoral process are real, the lack of full control over the voting process is a serious and unacceptable risk that we cannot take,” he added.

The president also raised concern that “the lack of secrecy” inherent to postal voting means that “there is no guarantee that voters cast their ballots independently, without pressure from third parties”. The bill provided “insufficient safeguards” against this, he said.

Nawrocki also issued an appeal to Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his government to consult with him on proposed laws “at an early stage” in order to “streamline the legislative process, reduce the need to veto flawed laws, and, above all, serve citizens”.

Since becoming president in August, Nawrocki has already vetoed more bills than his predecessor Andrzej Duda, who was also aligned with the opposition, did in the previous 18 months of cohabiting with Tusk’s government.

The president’s appeal was, however, rejected by a member of Tusk’s government, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, who told Onet Radio that Poland’s constitutional system gives the government and parliament, not the president, the main role in initiating and shaping legislation.

She also pointed to the fact that, in the government’s recent effort to create a new national park, it engaged with Nawrocki only for the persident to anyway issue a veto.

Meanwhile, a former head of Poland’s National Electoral Commission (PKW), Wojciech Hermeliński, criticised Nawrocki’s decision to veto the postal-voting bill.

“For me, it was a good solution,” Hermeliński told the Fakt newspaper, saying that it would have benefited diaspora voters in particular, who currently often have to travel very far to a polling station at a Polish embassy or consulate.

Hermeliński, who is also a former constitutional court judge, said that Nawrocki’s “senseless, mindless series of vetoes” are “not good for democracy”.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Mikołaj Bujak/KPRP

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.