None of the candidates for the chairman of Poland’s National Institute of Remembrance (IPN) has fulfilled formal requirements to be selected for the next stage of the competition for the post, the institute has revealed.
As a result an amendment to the bill determining who will head the institute in the case of an emergency will enter into force on Thursday.
The competition for the post of the institute’s chairman was launched on April 21 after the death Janusz Kurtyka in the Smolensk air disaster of 11 days before.
The Council at IPN did not say who submitted their candidacies or how many candidates were considered but issued a statement in which its members expressed regret “over a small number of applications”.
As of Tuesday, the only publicly known candidacy was that of historian Slawomir Cenckiewicz, a co-author of the controversial book Secret services and Lech Walesa, which accused the former head of Solidarity of cooperating with the communist secret services.
According to the amendment, in case of the death of a head of the Institute of National Remembrance, his responsibilities will be assumed by one of his deputies appointed by the Speaker of the Parliament. The deputy chairman of IPN will perform his duties until a new head is elected.
Drafted by the ruling Civic Platform (PO) the amendment strips the IPN Council of the possibility tochoose its new chairman which is to be elected by the simple majority vote in the Sejm after a proposal by the Council. It also guarantees a wider access to the Institute’s files. (di)
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