If the Polish presidential elections had been conducted on May 10 as originally planned, President Andrzej Duda would have received 45 percent of the vote, according to a new poll from Social Research and Market (IBRiS).
This means Duda would have had to take part in the second round of elections.
Duda’s opponent in the second round would have been independent TV celebrity Szymon Hołownia, who was polled to receive 19 percent of votes.
Third was the leader of the Polish People’s Party (PSL) Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz with 16.6 percent, followed by right-wing Confederation’s Krzysztof Bosak (9 percent), Civic Platform’s Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska (4.5 percent) and the left’s Robert Biedroń (2.6 percent).
Elections were delayed due to a dispute over postal voting during the coronavirus crisis. The United Right coalition has since decided that elections should happen within the next two to three months.
Marcin Duma, the head of IBRiS pointed out, that according to the data, the more the presidential elections are delayed, the lower the chances for Duda to win.
The government is aware that the crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic will be increasingly noticeable in the upcoming months, which is why postponing the elections does not benefit Duda.
The new date of elections still not known
There have currently been several talks held in PiS’s headquarters concerning the date of elections but the results of those talks are unknown.
The head of the Polish National Electoral Commission (PKW) Sylwester Marciniak announced on Sunday that PKW has “accepted a formula that due to not conducting a vote, there is a situation similar to when there would be no or only one candidate. In such circumstances, elections are not held.”
Marciniak declared that there was no need for the Supreme Court (SN) to release a statement concerning the elections.
This is what the government was hoping for, as the head of the Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber of the SN has been skeptical about the elections.
According to the law, Speaker of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek has 14 days to announce a new date for the presidential elections. Unofficially, June 28 is being given as the deadline.
Marciniak admitted, however, that it is too early to discuss the date as it could be as early as June 20 or even later than July 20.
