On Sunday, October 15, Poland holds elections to the Sejm, Senate, as well as a national referendum, voting began at 7.00 and will last until 21.00, reports Polskie Radio.
It is noted that citizens have been created conditions for voting in Poland, abroad and even on ships. According to the chairman of the National Election Commission Sylwester Marciniak, more than 31 thousand electoral districts have been created.
“There are 29 thousand 292 stationary constituencies, 1,701 separate constituencies, and in addition, 417 constituencies abroad have been created, however, one was eliminated in Israel, and 8 constituencies for voting on ships have been created,” Marciniak emphasized
According to Polskie Radio, 29 million Polish citizens have the right to vote in elections and referendums. More than 391 thousand voting certificates have been issued, which allow voting not at the place of residence.
It is noted that Poles will elect 460 deputies and 100 senators. And the referendum should answer four questions: whether they support the removal of the fence on the border with Belarus, support for the privatization of state-owned enterprises, raising the retirement age to 60 years for women and 65 years for men, as well as whether they agree to accept thousands of illegal migrants from the Middle East and Africa, in accordance with the mechanism of forced relocation, which operates in the EU.
As DW reports, according to the latest opinion polls, the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party of Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski with 34% of the vote is only slightly ahead of the opposition liberal-conservative Civic Platform (CP) party of former Polish Prime Minister and former President of the European Council Donald Tusk, for which 32% of voters are ready to vote.
It is emphasized that in case of victory each of the contenders will have to look for partners to create a government coalition.
The first grain port in Poland will be built in Gdansk, in particular for the export of Ukrainian agricultural products, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Robert Telus said at a meeting with voters in Przysus, polskieradio24.pl reports.
According to the report, RSSI (Agri-Food Investment Company – IF-U) has signed an agreement with the Port of Gdansk to implement this project.
“On Tuesday, the state budget enterprise RSSI signed an agreement with the Port of Gdansk to create a grain port. We have a grain port,” the minister said, adding that this is an extremely important event.
He noted that the grain port will improve the transportation of grain, in particular from Ukraine.
The creation of further “solidarity corridors” that would allow the transportation of Ukrainian grain by sea is very important, he explained, while emphasizing that the lack of agricultural supplies to African countries is beneficial to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As reported, on September 15, the European Commission announced that it would not extend restrictions on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine to five neighboring EU countries (Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia) under certain conditions that will help avoid a new sharp increase in supplies.
The restrictions were introduced on May 2 and applied to imports of wheat, rapeseed, sunflower and corn. These five Eastern European EU member states argued that Ukrainian agricultural products, when imported duty-free into the EU, were being deposited in their countries and were harming their local agricultural sectors.
After the restrictions were lifted, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia imposed unilateral bans. Poland expanded the list of banned products to include rapeseed cake and meal, as well as corn bran, wheat flour, and derivatives. Hungary extended the list to 24 commodity items.
Ukraine filed a lawsuit with the WTO, accusing Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia of discriminatory treatment of its agricultural products.
Ukraine is currently negotiating the introduction of a mechanism for licensing the export of Ukrainian agricultural products with mandatory verification in each of the five countries.
Ukraine has received from Poland the first Leopard tanks repaired at the Bumar-Labenda plant, the Polish Arms Group (PGZ) has announced.
“While others are making statements about the future, we are acting in coordination with the Ukrainian side. The first Leopard tanks, which have undergone special modernization in Bumar-Labendy, were received by the Ukrainian side. Work is underway on the next vehicles,” the company said in a post on social network X (formerly Twitter).
“This clearly demonstrates that our priority is to provide real assistance to the Ukrainian military on the front line,” the statement said.
PGZ also noted that it is constantly expanding its cooperation in the supply of ammunition, spare parts and maintenance of equipment.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has expressed confidence that Poland and Slovakia will continue to support Ukraine after the upcoming elections, despite recent harsh remarks against Kyiv, Reuters reported on Friday, September 29.
“I expect and I am confident that Ukraine and Poland will find a way to resolve these issues without negatively affecting military support for Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with Reuters.
It is noted that Poland, a NATO member, was until recently considered one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in its war with Russia, but relations with it deteriorated after Poland’s decision to extend the ban on imports of Ukrainian grain.
Slovakia, a NATO member, is also an ally of Ukraine, supplying military equipment, including MiG-29 fighter jets and S-300 air defense systems. However, opposition leader and former prime minister Robert Fico, who is leading in pre-election polls, has vowed to end this military support, Reuters emphasizes.
“Whatever the new government in Slovakia, we will continue to sit in NATO meetings,” Stoltenberg said, “and I am confident that we will find ways to continue to provide support – as we have done after every election in this alliance since the beginning of the war.
Polish President Andrzej Duda calls it a good decision to maintain the ban on the sale of Ukrainian grain on the Polish market, while announcing his intention to increase its transit through Poland to help Ukraine and countries that need this grain, the Presidential Office’s X (formerly Twitter) reported on Sunday.
“I believe it is the right decision that the Polish government has maintained the ban on the sale of Ukrainian grain on the Polish market. However, it is necessary to do everything possible to ensure that transit is as high as possible,” Duda said in a commentary to the Polish TV channel TVP1.
According to him, transit corridors have already been prepared in Poland, thanks to which Ukrainian grain can travel through the territory of Poland and be exported to where it is needed. “We are trying to help Ukraine and those countries that need this assistance,” the Polish President emphasized.
“Thanks to the work of our farmers, we are self-sufficient. We do not need grain from Ukraine. Their excellent harvests during the war almost did not reach the countries that really needed them,” Duda said.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has said that Prime Minister Mateusz Marowiecki’s words that Warsaw is “no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine” were taken out of context, TVN24 reported on Thursday.
“In my opinion, the prime minister simply said this: we are not going to transfer to Ukraine the new weapons that we are now buying as part of the modernization of the Polish army,” the Polish president explained.
According to Duda, “We both had the same position. We cannot hand over to someone else our new weapons, which we are now buying for billions of dollars for the Polish army to strengthen it, to strengthen Poland’s security. To anyone.”
Duda specified that those contracts on Polish arms, which Poland signed with Ukraine, will be fulfilled.
At the same time, he recalled that contracts with Ukraine have been signed, including for the delivery of Polish self-propelled howitzers Krab. “We need to fulfill this contract, and we are fulfilling it,” Duda said, adding that there are other contracts concerning ammunition and demining equipment.
“As we receive new armaments from Korea, from the United States, we will also replace the armaments that are now in storage,” Duda said, noting that such armaments could be sent to Ukraine “as we did before, transferring post-Soviet armaments.”
