The Supreme Audit Office of the Polish Supreme Court ruled today that the presidential elections held on 12th July were valid and legal. As the Office stated in the opening of today’s sitting, the Court first and foremost investigated the matter of accepting electoral petitions. 88% of them turned out to be invalid. The petitions were not approved if they had been filed after the due date or if they had been filed by unauthorised persons.
There was no surprise regarding the legality of the elections at today’s sitting of the Supreme Audit Office.
“Based on article 129 paragraph 1 of the Constitution, as well article 324 paragraph 1 of the law from January 5th 2011 Electoral Code, the Supreme Court declares the choice of Andrzej Sebastian Duda as president of Poland from July 12th 2020 as legal and valid”, stated judge Ewa Stefańska.
Almost 6 thousand electoral protests were filed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Audit Office finished reviewing them last Sunday. 93 were described as valid in their entirety or partly, although they wouldn’t affect the outcome of the elections. They were mainly concerned with postal voting, for example when the voting pack was sent to the wrong address.
“The world seems to be switching to postal voting, we receive information from other countries that they implemented such systems as well. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Polish solution to let the voters decide if they want to vote via post or personally, may be the most reasonable one. Other countries will probably follow, although there are still debates on the subject for example in the United States”, commented Sylwester Marciniak, the president of the National Electoral Commission.
The Supreme Court also dismissed the electoral protest filed by the candidate who lost to president Duda, Rafał Trzaskowski from the Civic Platform party.
“The Supreme Audit Office only reviews protests regarding the process of holding elections, counting votes, and announcing the outcome of the elections, so protests like the one filed by candidate Rafał Trzaskowski regarding the electoral campaign are invalid. There were other ways to protest the electoral campaign, but they should have been used during the campaign, not after”, said Aleksander Stępkowski, the spokesman for the Supreme Court.
The National Assembly will take place on August 6th, during which president Andrzej Duda will be sworn in for the second term of office.