2023-10-15 06:52:01
WARSAW (AP) — The polls opened Sunday in Poland for elections that will decide the path followed by the European Union member country, located on the eastern flank of NATO.
The outcome of the election will determine whether the conservative Law and Justice party wins an unprecedented third term or whether an opposition coalition gains enough support to unseat it.
Many Poles viewed the day as the most important vote since 1989, the year in which decades of communism ended. At stake were the health of Polish democracy, its legal position on LGBTQ+ and abortion rights, as well as the foreign alliances of a country that has been a crucial ally of Ukraine.
Political experts indicated that the elections would not be totally fair following eight years of Law and Justice government, in which the system of democratic controls and guarantees has been eroded to gain more control over state institutions such as courts, public media and the electoral process itself. .
Retired nurse Barbara Burs, 63, voted early in Warsaw and said she was doing so to change the government, because she wanted a better Poland for her children and grandchildren, “a fair Poland without divisions.”
Some 29 million Poles aged 18 and over might vote.
Voters will elect 460 members of the lower house, or Sejm, and 100 senators for four-year terms.
A referendum on immigration, the retirement age and other issues was being held simultaneously. Opposition parties were once morest the referendum, which they saw as a way to mobilize the ruling party’s electorate in what appeared to be a tight and unpredictable vote. Some called on voters to boycott the referendum.
At one voting center, people were seen who seemed to refuse to vote in the referendum and only deposited two ballots in the assigned ballot boxes. There were three ballot boxes available, one for the Sejm, one for the Senate and one for the referendum.
More than 31,000 voting centers in Poland would open from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Sunday. Another 400 spaces were also enabled to vote abroad.
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