The conservative party announced the plan at a news conference in parliament on Thursday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The bill was last month submitted to the Sejm, the lower house, which is set to debate it “in the near future,” officials said.
Party spokesman Rafał Bochenek told reporters: “The essence of a democratic state, the essence of the rule of law, is above all a clear and transparent electoral process, including an easy access to polling stations and a lack of exclusion when it comes to being able to vote.”
He said that "voter turnout wasn’t always satisfactory" in recent Polish elections, “partly because of a lack of easy access to polling stations.”
“The new bill seeks to address this,” Bochenek added.
Rafał Bochenek. PAP/Łukasz Gągulski
Number of polling stations to be increased by 6,000
Fellow Law and Justice MP Marek Ast announced that “the proposal enables the creation of polling stations in localities with at least 200 inhabitants, whereas now a place has to have at least 500 residents to have a polling station.”
As a result of this change, “the number of polling stations will increase by some 6,000 from the current figure of 27,000,” Ast said.
'Bigger role for party representatives in vote-counting process'
He added that the plan also foresees “a bigger role for party representatives in the vote-counting process” to make the elections more transparent.
For the same reason, each electoral committee will tally the votes collectively, according to Ast.
“Each member of the committee will be able to see every ballot,” he said.
'Equal access to polling stations'
Bochenek told reporters the plan seeks “to ensure equal access to polling stations and combat civic exclusion” by making sure that voters in every district are able to reach the polling station by public transport.
He added that his party would like to see the bill processed and approved by the lower house “in the immediate future.”
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, tvp.info