Election silence falls on Poland in EP election run-up
PR dla Zagranicy
John Beauchamp
24.05.2014 14:17
Election silence descended on Poland, midnight Saturday, ahead of European parliamentary elections on Sunday when Poles will choose 51 MEPs to represent them in Brussels for the next five years.
Preparations under way in Szczecin for the EP ballot on Sunday, 25.05.2014. Photo: PAP/Marcin Bielecki
The election silence will end on Sunday evening at 21.00 local time after polling closes, and when the first exit polls may be announced.
Secretary of the State Electoral Commission, Kazimierz Czaplicki said that election silence includes all elements of election campaigning, such as poster flying, organising political meetings, and publishing political polls of any kind.
No Facebook ‘likes’
Meanwhile, head of the Electoral Commission Stefan Jaworski said that all media is subject to the strict election silence rules, including social network sites where many politicians maintain their public profiles.
On popular social network site Facebook, for instance, ‘liking’ or sharing a politician’s profile during the election silence is deemed a breach of the rules.
Fines for breaking the election silence in Poland can reach up to 1 million zoty (around 250,000 euro).
Meanwhile, according to research published by CBOS pollsters and the Copernicus University in Torun, 72 percent of Poles are in favour of election silence. (jb)
Source: PAP