Civic Platform’s coalition partner, the Polish Peasant’s Party may hold a congress ahead of autumn’s local elections in order to elect a new leader after Waldemar Pawlak’s poor result in the first round of the presidential ballot.

Parliamentarian Janusz Piechocinski from the Polish Peasant’s Party (PSL) told the press that “we don’t have to wait two years to change our leader, we can do it earlier,” hinting at a proposed internal election within the party structures.

The politician told the press that he wants the method of the party’s functioning to change, including the way in which PSL communicates with the public as well as other parties in the Sejm lower parliamentary house.

Waldemar Pawlak’s poor result in the first round of presidential elections on June 20, in which he gained only 1.8 percent of the ballot, does not bode the party well before the local elections scheduled for autumn this year.

According to Piechocinski, it may be the Polish Peasant Party’s last chance to defend the political centre as a viable alternative to Civic Platform or opposition party Law and Justice.

The PSL politician said that in order to gain a good election result in the autumn local ballot, the party should concentrate on gaining support in areas where support for PSL is limited, not safe seats where the party gains 40-60 percent of the vote.

“Our competition goes to rural areas and sell our policies as their own: we must show the electorate that it is the Polish Peasant’s Party which is the author of the programmes,” Janusz Piechocinski underlines. (jb)

Source: Polska The Times

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