‘Chaotic’ Polish election planning threatens to keep Europe waiting

By Martin Banks

Date: 27/05/04

THE final result of next month's European elections will be delayed by up to 48 hours - because votes in Poland have to be transported some 150 kilometres by road.

European Parliament chiefs had hoped to announce the outcome of the election and the likely composition of the next legislature on the evening of Sunday 13 June but their plans have been thrown into disarray due to Warsaw's "chaotic" election plans. Poland is the only member state not to have made any special arrangements on election night.

Its 25,000 polling stations will not close until 10pm on 13 June and the count is expected to take up to six hours.

Under a complex electoral system specially devised for the European elections, results from each station will be transported by road to 49 regional polling offices, some of them 150km away.

Parliamentary seats will then be allocated on the basis of turnout in the country's 13 constituencies.

The whole process means that while results from all other 24 countries taking part in the poll are expected to be in by 11pm on 13 June, the Polish final results will not be available for up to two days later.

"The Polish arrangements for this election - or lack of them - are all a bit chaotic," said a source at the Parliament's administration, which is overseeing the election.

"You would've thought they would have taken the event more seriously given it is the first time the country is taking part in a European election but it hasn't got its act together at all."

Toon Streppel, an official in the Parliament's information office in Warsaw, said the delay in the Polish count was due to several factors, including a complicated electoral system and the current political uncertainty in the country, led by a caretaker government. "Basically, the Polish parliament hasn't really given enough thought to the practicalities of planning for this election and the government hasn't bothered organizing anything," he said. "The Polish TV stations are not even broadcasting election-night coverage because they know there will be no results until the following day at the earliest."

Parliament's spokesman David Harley said plans had already been made for any "significant delay" in the Polish result.

He said: "We shall use the results of opinion polls in Poland in the week before the election for an overall projection of the new Parliament's likely composition."

Details of the turnout in each member state are expected to be available by 6pm on election night with results out about two hours later. The final result - minus the Polish vote - is expected by 10.45pm.

The European Parliament will not be able to announce the outcome of the European Parliament Election on 13 June because votes in Poland will have to be transported 150 kilometres by road, delaying matters by up to 48 hours.