Poland says May 10 election on track despite epidemic

by Staff Writers Warsaw (AFP) March 20, 2020 AFP

Poland declared an epidemic and extended school closures on Friday but said it would stick with its May 10 date for the first round of a presidential election.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in Warsaw that declaring an epidemic allowed his right-wing government "to suspend school lessons until Easter", adding that this "doesn't mean we're postponing the (presidential) election".

Like other EU members, Poland has introduced sweeping measures to combat the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus, including shutting schools -- initially to March 25 -- closing borders to foreigners and asking people to work from home.

Opposition politicians have called on Morawiecki's Law and Justice (PiS) government to also postpone the presidential election.

Some 70 percent of respondents want a delay, according to an opinion poll by the independent Pollster agency published on Friday.

Surveys conducted in the wake of the outbreak of the disease show that PiS-allied incumbent President Andrzej Duda is favoured to win the ballot, possibly by capturing more than 50 percent of the vote in round one.

A country of 38 million people, Poland had 411 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including five deaths, as of Friday.