Polish presidentials: Commisson will look at errors in vote counting

Euronews

11 hours ago

On Monday at 17:00, the National Electoral Commission (PKW) will consider erroneously completed protocols in some constituencies at a meeting, PKW member Ryszard Kalisz announced in a post on X. He was referring to the second round of the presidential election.
According to the official results of the PKW, the election was won by Karol Nawrocki. The candidate supported by Law and Justice (PiS) won 10,606,877 votes, or 50.89%. He defeated Civic Coalition (KO) candidate Rafal Trzaskowski, who got the vote from 10,237,286 people in the second round, or 49.11%.
Ultimately, the validity of the presidential election is decided by the Supreme Court on the basis of the report presented by the PKW and after considering protests.
Certain entities, including voters, can submit written protests until 16 June. The Supreme Court has received 21 election protests, Monika Drwal of the Supreme Court press team reported on Friday.
A petition for a recount of the votes is being collected online. To date, the petition has collected more than 160,000 signatures.
"Given the extremely small difference of 369,591 votes between the candidates in the last presidential election, the very high number of 189,000 invalid votes, as well as the numerous reports of irregularities in the work of the electoral commissions, we feel obliged to call for a recount of all votes cast," wrote the authors of the petition. - wrote the authors of the petition.
Signals of irregularities appeared, among others, in Minsk Mazowiecki. The authorities there reported that the results of two candidates had been swapped in one of the commissions. The chairman of the commission admitted that he had made a mistake in the minutes.
A similar incident occurred in Krakow, specifically at PEC number 95 on Stawowa Street. The District Election Commission in Krakow is investigating the matter.
The case has been addressed by the Polish authorities. Prime Minister Donald Tusk tried to tone down the mood of some internet users who suggested that the elections had been rigged.
"Every reported case of irregularities in vote counting is checked and analysed. Possible falsifications are being investigated and will be punished. Protests will go to the Supreme Court. I understand emotions, but assuming in advance that the elections have been rigged does not serve the Polish state". - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote in a post on the X platform.
The head of the office of the incumbent Polish president, Małgorzata Paprocka, commented on the matter on Saturday. Although she admitted that there had been an error in one of the commissions in counting the votes, she added in an interview with Trwam TV that she was concerned about attempts to question the election results.
"The myth of falsifying the election result, undermining the mandate of the president, trying to antagonise the public, trying to introduce such unrest is an absolutely scandalous thing," - she said during the interview. "Of course such a mistake should not have happened, of course it should be clarified, but it has no bearing," - Paprocka assessed.
In the campaign of attrition and position that the war in Ukraine has become, FPV drones have quickly become ubiquitous and vitally essential.
Russia, initially relying mainly on Iranian Shaheds, soon put all the power of its war economy into manufacturing them itself.
Ukraine, although not able to rely on the same production capacity, is not to be outdone and can rely on its inventiveness, both in the construction and development of its own models and the effectiveness of their use - as demonstrated by the recent 'Spider's Web' operation- but also in the 're-use' of swarms launched by its adversaries.
Now Kyiv can count on some major support in this war at a distance: French automotive and defence companies are going to produce drones on Ukrainian soil.0
As French public radio reported in the afternoon, it will be automotive giant Renault Group which will be producing the drones.
Announcing the initiative on LCI, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu spoke of a "win-win" partnership with Ukraine.
"We're going to embark on a completely unprecedented partnership where a major company producing French cars - I'm not giving the name because it's up to it to announce it - is going to join forces with a French defence SME to arm production lines in Ukraine to be able to produce drones", the minister announced.
These drones, the type of which he did not specify, will be intended for the Ukrainians, " but we are also going to make them available to our own French armies so that we can have permanent tactical and operational training that reflects the reality" of the conflict.
As far as expertise and manpower are concerned, production will rest on the Ukrainians' shoulders: they "are better than we are at devising drones and, above all, developing the doctrine that goes with them", Lecornu admitted. "There's also no need to ask French citizens" to go and work on the production line in Ukraine.
The announcement follows the discussions that took place on 5 June in Brussels between the Ukrainian and French defence ministers on the joint production of weapons for Ukrainian defence needs.
"We are ready to offer this opportunity to the best manufacturers. Ukraine has combat experience and France has a solid industrial base. This is a strategic and mutually beneficial partnership", Ukrainian Miniser of Defence Rustem Umarierov emphasised, thanking Lecornu for his support.
At the 28th Ramstein meeting at NATO headquarters, Ukraine and its partners also decided to set up an armaments production mechanism.
Several European partners have recently invested in drone production in Ukraine
Finland has set up a drone manufacturing plant in cooperation with Ukrainian partners to produce drones for Ukraine and the EU, with mass production scheduled to begin in 2025.
The Netherlands has announced a €700m ($798m) investment to advance drone technology and support Ukraine's defence industry.
The UK is also investing hundreds of millions of dollars to increase drone production for Ukraine in 2025. Norway has redirected its funds to support Ukrainian drone production.
According to Jean-Paul Perruche, Lieutenant General and former Director General of the European Union Military Staff, quoted by LCI, France was until then "insufficiently prepared" for this upheaval in warfare practices: "I worked in the research department of the army staff, and we were already talking about drones at the end of the 1980s. But the context at the time was far from high-intensity. I think we fell behind on drones at a time when countries like the United States and others like China were forging ahead.
While the French army has a few thousand drones (3,000 for the army), Ukraine intends to use more than 4.5 million drones by 2025, which are responsible for 70% of the destruction of enemy equipment on the front line.