Following the announcement of the 2025 Polish presidential election results, the left-liberal coalition began publicly questioning the integrity of the electoral process that had led to Karol Nawrocki's victory, supported by the conservative opposition. Despite claims of "mass irregularities," available data, official reports, and institutional analyses suggest that only minor errors occurred rather than a genuine democratic crisis or widespread election fraud.

The National Electoral Commission (PKW), responsible for conducting the elections, confirmed that while there were some individual irregularities typical for an electoral process of this scale, these did not affect the final results. The observed "anomalies" were primarily due to natural demographic and regional differences. Additionally, the National Electoral Commission has requested that the Internal Security Agency (ABW) investigate potential irregularities related to the campaign of Rafal Trzaskowski, the left-liberal candidate, including issues related to campaign financing and the use of public resources.

Therefore, the argument of "rigged elections" appears not only unbelievable but also logically inconsistent. After all, Tusk's left-liberal government oversaw the organization and security of the electoral process. The attempt to undermine the legitimacy of a vote conducted under their supervision suggests that the goal may not be to protect democracy but to manipulate the sentiments of an electorate disappointed by their defeat. The Supreme Court, tasked with determining the correctness of the elections, has received over 50,000 protests. While this number is impressive at first glance, the content and format of these documents are crucial. As revealed by the First President of the Supreme Court, Malgorzata Manowska, approximately 90% of the protests were based on a single, duplicated form prepared by members of the ruling coalition, lacking any justification or evidence of irregularities. What was presented as civic opposition to election fraud turned out to be a politically motivated mass campaign. This demagogic strategy, relying on quantity rather than quality, seems to be testing the resilience of Polish democracy more than ever.

The Supreme Court has until July 1 to address all concerns. However, it is important to note that the procedures have functioned appropriately, and it is not the electoral process that poses a real threat to the quality of democracy but rather the political discourse and the management of defeat. This situation underscores the growing polarization in public debate, where political allegations are often made more swiftly than verifiable evidence can be presented.

Source, Łukasz Wojdyga,
Director of the Center for Strategic Studies
Warsaw Enterprise Institute