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| - Poland's lower house of parliament, which is controlled by the governing conservatives, on Monday voted in favour of holding the May presidential election by postal ballot due to coronavirus concerns. The liberal opposition, medical workers, the majority of the public and even some allies and members of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party had been calling on the government for weeks to push back the election because of risks posed by the COVID-19 crisis. But PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki have refused to change the date. Close ally President Andrzej Duda, who is seeking reelection, for his part admitted late last month that the "date may turn out to be unsustainable." The consensus among commentators is that the governing conservatives have been sticking to their guns because a later election date could work against Duda, who is currently the frontrunner. The legislation, which still needs to be greenlighted by the senate, also stipulates that the speaker of parliament can call for the May 10 election to be postponed during an epidemic. Commentators suggest the PiS-controlled parliament may end up voting to push back the election to allow the head of one of their allied parties, Jaroslaw Gowin -- who had been calling for the election to be postponed and resigned as deputy prime minister as a result -- to save face. But under that scenario the election would only be pushed back by a week to May 17, as that is the last possible day for Poland to hold its election under the Constitution. The EU member of 38 million people has recorded 4,413 confirmed cases of coronavirus, including 107 deaths. amj/dl
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