Rumpus in Polish parliament after voting irregularity
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
14.04.2016 16:20
An MP was ejected from the caucus of Poland’s opposition Kukiz'15 grouping on Thursday after she admitted to illegally voting in parliament on behalf of a party colleague.
Małgorzata Zwiercan (left) and Kornel Morawiecki (right). Photo: PAP/Jacek Turczyk
Meanwhile, political veteran Kornel Morawiecki, who asked fellow Kukiz'15 deputy Małgorzata Zwiercan to vote on his behalf after feeling ill, decided himself to leave the grouping’s parliamentary club.
Kornel Morawiecki, who was the head of a splinter of the opposition Solidarity movement in Poland during the communist era, is the father of Polish Development Minister and Deputy PM Mateusz Morawiecki.
Prosecutors informed
The opposition Civic Platform (PO) party said it was informing prosecutors over Thursday’s vote.
Sławomir Neumann, head of the PO caucus, criticised parliamentary Speaker Marek Kuchciński.
Neumann said: "Speaker Kuchciński today took part in a crime by accepting the results of the vote and announcing the final result of the ballot.”
Neumann added that Kuchciński “had prior knowledge, before he announced the outcome of the vote, that a crime had been committed in parliament.”
The subject of the ballot itself was a controversial one. MPs voted to approve the ruling Law and Justice party’s candidate for a Constitutional Tribunal judge. They backed Zbigniew Jędrzejewski as a replacement for an outgoing judge.
Political deadlock
Poland is locked in a political stalemate after the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which came to power in October, introduced sweeping reforms to the Constitutional Tribunal and other institutions.
The tribunal has rejected PiS-backed changes to the way it functions. PiS, in turn, has refused to recognise that ruling by the tribunal, claiming it is invalid.
Critics say the PiS-backed changes were designed to paralyse the tribunal.
PiS has argued it is unfair that a tribunal with a majority of judges appointed under the previous parliament should be able to scupper flagship policies for which the party secured a mandate in democratic elections.
Thursday’s storm over the two Kukiz'15 MPs comes a day after the European Parliament passed a resolution warning that the “effective paralysis” of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal endangers the rule of law, democracy and human rights. (pk)
Source: PAP