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Two in five Poles plan to vote in October referendum: survey

07.09.2023 19:15
Forty-three percent of Polish people are planning to vote in the national referendum on issues including illegal migration, scheduled for October 15, according to a new opinion poll.
Photo:
Photo:PAP/Marcin Bielecki

The survey was conducted by pollsters CBOS and published on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported. 

Forty-three percent of respondents said they planned to vote in the October 15 referendum, CBOS said.

Meanwhile, “Almost a third of Poles (31 percent) haven’t decided yet whether they would take part in the referendum, while one in four Poles (26 percent) have declared they wouldn’t vote,” CBOS added. 

Among those declaring participation in the referendum, the majority are over 65 years of age (52 percent), take part in religious practices a few times a week (64 percent) and espouse right-wing views (64 percent), the PAP news agency reported.

Among the “undecideds,” the majority (56 percent) are between 18 and 24 years of age, and many (38 percent) declare centrist beliefs or have no specified political preferences (40 percent). 

Meanwhile, among those declaring they won’t vote in the referendum, almost a half (49 percent) espouse left-wing views and two in five (42 percent) don’t take part in religious practices, CBOS said. 

When it comes to political views, 77 percent of respondents who support the ruling conservatives Law and Justice (PiS) are planning to vote in the October 15 referendum, which will be held alongside parliamentary elections, the PAP news agency reported.

Meanwhile, the majority (53 percent) of respondents supporting the far-right Confederation grouping are also planning to take part in the plebiscite, while most (53 percent) of respondents favouring the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), as well as 43 percent of respondents supporting the left, have declared they won’t vote in the referendum, CBOS said. 

The survey was conducted between August 14 and 27 on a representative sample of 1,024 adult residents of Poland, through a mixture of computer-aided personal interviews (CAPI), computer-aided telephone interviews (CATI) and computer-aided web interviews (CAWI), the PAP news agency reported.

Last month, Poland's lawmakers approved a government plan to combine the parliamentary elections with a nationwide referendum on issues including illegal migration.

Four referendum questions

The government of conservative Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has proposed putting four referendum questions to voters:

1) “Do you support the sale of state assets to foreign buyers, causing the Polish people to lose control over strategic sectors of the economy?”

2) “Are you in favour of raising the retirement age, including the reintroduction of a higher retirement age of 67 years for men and women?”

3)  “Are you in favour of dismantling the wall on Poland’s border with Belarus?”

4)  “Are you in favour of admitting thousands of illegal migrants from the Middle East and Africa under the mandatory relocation mechanism imposed by the European bureaucracy?”

(pm)

Source: PAP, i.pl