Truth be told, I have mixed feelings about the oncoming presidential
election. The failed attempt to organise the mail-in voting on 10 May has fortunately
turned out to be a massive cock-up, as the farcical ballot could not meet any
criteria of democratic voting process. The first (and conceivably not the last)
round of the election to be held in two weeks at least is staged by a
third-party institution (Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza).
One can hope, but I doubt can ensure all four traits of presidential
election enumerated in article 127, paragraph 1 of the constitution will be
satisfied.
Despite unequal access to public media (which are a sludge, as Michael
once rightly named) and limited time to garner 100,000 signatures by Rafał
Trzaskowski (hats off to his team and mobilized potential voters), I still
believe the election can be named equal.
I fear common participation in the election, especially abroad and to
people who will be put on quarantine just before the vote might constitute a
problem.
They law adopted by the parliament in early June broadly ensures
everyone can vote directly.
Also the formula of voting broadly ensures the very process of casting a
ballot will be done in secrecy.
Both the ruling party, afraid of social anger spurred by inept handling
the pandemic, numerous scandals and “PiSites are more equal than others” and
the opposition which has felt wind in their sales and intent on making use of
it before it wanes, have been determined to hold the vote possibly quickly. Despite
legal opinions, the election has been called in absence of any circumstances in
which it can be done according to the constitution. The amendment bringing back
the vote under the legal order, i.e. deferring the vote until the end of the incumbent
president’s term has ultimately been rejected by the Senate. This all raises
concerns whoever loses the election might file to the supreme court for deeming
it unconstitutional.
I find the candidate swapping trick distasteful. Rafał Trzaskowski is a
far superior candidate to Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, has skills she lacks to fight
PiS and is more charismatic. No wonder PiSites fear him. Nevertheless the way Małgorzata
Kidawa-Błońska was ousted from the race does not take my fancy. End justifies
the means.
I do not feel like writing up short notes on each of candidates standing
any chance to score at least 5% of votes as I did 5 and 10 years ago. I declare
to vote for my neighbour (living half a mile from my home) and for anyone else
than Andrzej Duda in the run-off, be it Rafał Trzaskowski, Szymon Hołownia,
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Robert Biedroń or even Krzysztof Bosak.
The ongoing epidemic also instils fear in me. People behave as if the
peril was over. Lack of discipline is visible especially when people rally to meet
candidates. I fear the campaign and the vote might contribute to a spread of
the disease. For such reason I will visit the polling station around 7:00 a.m.,
armed in gloves and my own pen. The stake is too high to give up on fulfilling
my civic duty, especially since I have not missed a single election since
acquiring the right to vote in December 2005.
No comments:
Post a Comment