– Carrying out fully correspondence elections was the best solution, not to say the least bad one, said Adam Bielan, PiS MEP, before the investigative commission investigating the circumstances of preparations for conducting envelope elections during the COVID-19 pandemic. He admitted that there was a division in his party on this issue in 2020. He also talked about his conversation with PiS president Jarosław Kaczyński, during which he wanted to convince him to “consider” the possibility of organizing elections like Bavaria.
On Tuesday, PiS MEP Adam Bielan testified before the investigative committee on envelope elections. As he said, in 2020 he believed that “it was very difficult to conduct partially correspondence elections for 10 million people.” – The Sejm passed such an act on March 27 (correspondence voting for seniors and people in isolation – ed.). I believed that the elections should be entirely by correspondence. Such elections were held in Bavaria at that time, he said.
He admitted that there was a “division” regarding the conduct of postal elections, primarily within his party – Porozumienie. – When it comes to the Agreement’s MPs, of whom there were 18 at that time, the division was about half, he pointed out.
Bielany: about 9 MPs from the Agreement party were against TVN24
Bielan assessed that conducting fully correspondence elections was “the best solution, not to say the least bad.” – However, I considered the solution voted by the Sejm on March 27 to be unfeasible due to the need to deliver many millions of ballots by registered mail – he added.
Bielan: I talked to Gowin and Kaczyński
He was asked which United Right politicians he talked to about his idea. He said that on March 31, 2020, he talked with Jarosław Gowin, the then head of the Agreement, and then, on the same day in the evening, with the president of PiS, Jarosław Kaczyński.
– I talked to him on the phone in the evening. I called President Kaczyński. I provided detailed information that elections had taken place in Bavaria and said that after talking to Jarosław Gowin, I believed that the possibility of holding elections in Poland in a similar way should be seriously considered. Kaczyński said he would consider it, (…) he would think about it, Bielan reported. He added that he talked to Kaczyński about the elections “more than once”, but “he did not keep statistics.”
Later, when asked by the chairman of the committee, Dariusz Joński, he admitted that “maybe” he also talked with the then Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, but said he did not remember such a conversation.
“Definitely,” Bielan added later, he also talked to President Andrzej Duda, on whose staff he worked. – I don’t remember exactly what the president said then – he noted.
Bielan on whether he was the “originator”
The chairman of the commission, citing the testimony of Jarosław Gowin, Jacek Sasin, former minister of state assets, and Robert Anacki, former deputy head of the Agreement, asked Bielan whether he considered himself the “originator” of envelope elections.
– I was not the originator of the idea of introducing the possibility of voting by correspondence into the Polish legal system, I was not the originator of the extension of voting by correspondence, which the Sejm did on March 27, (…) I was not the originator of the elections in Bavaria. After the elections were held in this German state, I was in favor of considering the possibility of holding elections in a similar way in Poland, he emphasized.
Bielan on whether he was the originator of the 2020 envelope electionsTVN24
Bielan: we could have a problem with the majority in the Sejm, that’s why an agreement was reached
When asked by MP Magdalena Filiks, the PiS politician returned to May 6, 2020, when Jarosław Kaczyński and Jarosław Gowin issued a joint statement. They informed that the elections on May 10 would not take place and would be postponed to a later date.
Bielan admitted that the United Right at that time, due to conflicts, “could have a problem” with gathering a majority in the Sejm and “therefore, on May 6, a political agreement was reached between Gowin and Kaczyński.”
Bielan: we could have a problem with the majority in the Sejm, that’s why the Kaczyński-Gowin agreement was reachedTVN24
2020 presidential elections
The presidential elections, in accordance with the order of the Speaker of the Sejm of February 2020, were to be held on May 10, 2020 in the form of postal voting – due to the COVID-19 epidemic. However, on May 7, the National Electoral Commission announced that because the applicable legal regulation deprived the National Electoral Commission of the instruments necessary to perform its duties (including establishing a ballot template and ordering the printing of cards), the vote on May 10, 2020 cannot take place. Ultimately, the elections took place on June 28 (1st round). Voting was held at polling stations.
Source of the main photo: PAP