In the lead-up to next Sunday's parliamentary elections, more than 350,000 Polish citizens have registered to vote abroad, marking a historic high for such elections. This figure is expected to
climb even higher before the registration deadline on October 10.
The surge in voter interest has prompted the foreign ministry to establish additional overseas polling stations. However, concerns persist that these stations may be strained on election day.
Historically, Poles living abroad have tended to support parties and candidates aligned with the current opposition, in contrast to the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is seeking an unprecedented third term in office.
Recently, the foreign minister announced that over 350,000 Polish citizens have registered to vote abroad, surpassing the 314,000 who did so during the last parliamentary elections in 2019. While this figure still lags behind the over 385,000 who registered for the 2020 presidential elections, the ongoing registration period until next Tuesday leaves room for potentially breaking that record.
In response to this surge, the foreign ministry has expanded the number of overseas voting districts. On Friday, it introduced seven additional districts in Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, bringing the worldwide total to 417, setting yet another record, and representing a 30% increase from 2019.
Some commentators, particularly those affiliated with the opposition, have expressed concerns that overseas polling stations may struggle to count votes promptly, potentially resulting in the invalidation of many ballots. Aleksander Pociej, an election candidate from the main opposition group, Civic Coalition (KO), claimed that "over 40 electoral commissions are at risk of being unable to count votes." He did not provide evidence for this assertion but pointed to a map labeling the commissions at risk. Earlier this year, Poland's human rights commissioner cautioned that a new deadline for counting overseas votes might violate the constitution and disenfranchise Polish voters abroad.
Paweł Żuchowski, Washington correspondent for broadcaster RMF FM, shared images from the online registration system for overseas voters, revealing warnings of likely long queues at polling stations in the Netherlands and Sweden on election day. The system advised voters to consider alternative locations. An email from the foreign ministry even suggested that Polish voters in the Netherlands could register to vote in neighboring Germany or Belgium. An anonymous diplomat acknowledged, "We can't handle it; we have too many voters. The red [warning] messages are intended to discourage people from signing up. It is clear that there are too few polling stations."
During the last parliamentary elections in 2019, Polish expatriates were more likely to vote for the opposition than those within Poland. Nearly 39% of overseas voters chose KO, while PiS received almost 25% of their votes. In the overall election results, including both domestic and overseas votes, PiS secured 43.6%, with KO in second place at 27.4%.
In the first round of the 2020 presidential elections, KO candidate Rafał Trzaskowski won among overseas voters with 48%, ahead of PiS-backed incumbent Andrzej Duda, who received 21%. However, Duda ultimately prevailed among all voters, securing 43.5%, while Trzaskowski garnered 30.5%. Photo by APK, Wikimedia commons.