Addressing a press conference on Thursday, the spokesman for the Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition party in Poland, said that Speaker Marek Kuchciński should resign over a disputed vote on next year’s budget.
The leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, Jarosław Kaczyński said, referring to the ballot, that “everything was legal”.
But opposition parties called the vote “illegal” and MPs from the PO and Nowoczesna parties have been holding a sit-in protest in the plenary hall since Friday.
They have announced that unless the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party resolves the crisis, and repeats the vote, they will keep on occupying parliament until 11 January.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Speaker Kuchciński denied that there were any irregularities in last week’s vote, which was held in a second, smaller hall by a show of hands.
Meanwhile, opposition MPs have obtained copies of stenograph reports taken during the controversial budget vote. The report appears to show Kuchciński calling two MPs from opposition parties to count the raised hands in separate sections of the crowded room. The numbers were duly noted in the minutes of the vote.
However, both Krystian Jarubas, from the opposition Polish People’s Party (PSL) and Elżbieta Borowska, from the Kukiz’15 movement, have publicly denied participating in the counting of votes.
Critics of the process say that this puts into doubt who in fact counted the votes, automatically throwing the result into question. PO MPs said that the "results were falsified" in Friday's vote.
Addressing the issue, PiS leader Kaczyński said: “These deputies were not in the room. They were appointed as secretaries, but did not come, so others were chosen.
“No one is falsifying anything. […] Everything was perfectly legal,” Kaczyński added.
(rg/pk)