(Photo: SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images) President of Poland Andrzej Duda speaks during a press-conference following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda in Kyiv on June 28, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Polish President Andrzej Duda announced the country would hold its general elections on October 15.

Poland will hold its general election on October 15, according to an announcement by President Andrzej Duda Tuesday (August 8).

Duda's announcement marked the official start of an electoral campaign that has been informally underway for months and was heavily influenced by Russia's war with Ukraine.

In his statement on social media, he said the elections would be for all 560 seats of both houses of the Sejm or the Polish parliament.

In Poland, parliamentary elections take place every four years but it is the president who would determine exactly when.

"Take part in the elections!" Duda said. "The future of Poland is everyone's matter! Use your rights!"

This year's elections would be influenced by rising anxieties in Poland over the presence of Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries across its northeastern border in Belarus. Tensions have also been growing between Warsaw and Kyiv over grain imports and historical memories of past ethnic conflicts, specifically during World War II.

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Law and Justice Seeks to Continue Supporting Ukraine

Law and Justice, the conservative ruling party in Poland, aims to stay in power and present itself as a military force to reckon with given the turmoil across its eastern borders. To this end, Polish troops have been called to reinforce its border with Belarus following the incursion of military helicopters. They are also planning to hold a large military parade on its August 15 Armed Forces Day holiday by showing off its newest tanks and other military equipment it has been purchasing.

August 15 is the anniversary of the Polish victory in the battle known as the "Miracle on the Vistula," when Polish troops repelled a Soviet invasion of Warsaw in 1920.

Law and Justice also seek to take a more confrontational stance in supporting Ukraine, with its leaders making multiple visits to Kyiv to support the Ukrainian war effort.

Polls show Law and Justice would be heading to win this year's elections, but would likely be falling short of an outright majority in parliament.

Meanwhile, Civic Coalition, a liberal-centrist bloc, would be the ruling party's main challenger. But while support for the party, led by former prime minister Donald Tusk, has grown in the past months, it has mostly done so at the expense of other opposition parties.

Other parties contending for seats in parliament include the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja), the Third Way (Trzecia Droga) alliance - which includes the center-right Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) and the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL) - and The Left (Lewica).

According to VOA, Poland's geographical position and support for Ukraine, as well as the acceptance of large numbers of Ukrainian refugees have attracted two visits from US President Joe Biden since the war started. The praise it won for helping Ukraine has allowed the government to avoid some of the scrutiny it has faced in past years over concerns in the West that its approach to the judiciary, media, LGBTQ+ people, and other minorities amounted to democratic backsliding.

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