Poland's PM and President Clash Over Vote Recount

Errors Found in Vote Count
The prosecutors, led by Adam Bodnar, Poland’s prosecutor general, reviewed recounts from 10 of the roughly 28,000 polling stations in the country and abroad. In seven of those municipalities, the outcome was wrong, and recounts indicated that Trzaskowski should have gotten more votes.

Among the affected cities are Kraków, GdaÅ„sk, Strzelce Opolskie, MiÅ„sk Mazowiecki, Olesno, GrudziÄ…dz, and Wieniec-Brześć Kujawski. In total, irregularities were confirmed in 9 out of 10 reviewed commissions.

Yet, the June 1 election declared Nawrocki, an ally of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, as winner by a razor thin margin of 50.89% over 49.10% for Trzaskowski, or just 370,000 votes ahead.

Just after the vote, concerns about misallocated votes emerged, with media reports claiming ballots had been mistakenly swapped from one candidate’s vote count to another.

As of the protest deadline last week, about 30,000 election complaints had been filed with the Supreme Court, but that could grow to as many as 50,000, court spokesman Aleksander StÄ™pkowski said.

Tusk and Duda Have a Spat
Before the Prosecutor’s statement, Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on President Duda, president-elect Nawrocki, and PiS leader JarosÅ‚aw KaczyÅ„ski to agree to a full ballot recount in public, saying that “Honest people have no reason to be afraid.”

Duda, in turn, accused Tusk and his associates of being unable to convey electoral loss. He also insisted that the results already released by the National Electoral Commission were legitimate, and accused the government of encouraging trouble by disputing the outcome. Duda also said the Supreme Court and the PKW had no power to adjust ballots.

KaczyÅ„ski repeated the president’s position that Polish law does not allow a recount. Former PM Mateusz Morawiecki condemned Tusk’s demand for counting that would be “madness.”

Voter Is Fined by Supreme Court For Vulgar Protest
And in a related development, Poland's Supreme Court penalized a voter with a PLN 3,000 (€700) fine for using vulgar and offensive language in an official protest filed following the poll. The court decided that the language was directed broadly at top officials, among them President Duda and members of the electoral commission.

The chamber, the Supreme Court's organ in charge of endorsing the election outcome, is subject to ongoing legal pressure from the new executive and EU bodies. The outcome of the election challenge, a final one to the legitimacy of the election, is expected by July 2.