Poland to hold parliamentary election on October 15, launching campaign in shadow of Russia-Ukraine war

Warsaw, August 8

Poland’s president announced Tuesday that the country would hold its parliamentary election on October 15, marking the official start of an electoral campaign that has informally been underway for months and is being shaped by Russia’s war against Ukraine.

President Andrzej Duda said in a statement posted on Twitter that the elections for the 460-seat lower house of parliament, the Sejm, and for the 100-seat Senate will both take place on that Sunday.

The election campaign begins during rising anxieties in Poland over the presence of Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries across the NATO nation’s northeastern border in Belarus, where they have arrived by the thousands since a short-lived mutiny in Russia in June.

Tensions have also been growing with ally Ukraine, to the country’s southeast, over grain imports and historical memories of past ethnic conflicts. AP