Poland's Supreme Court on Tuesday said it had validated the result of last month's presidential election won by the nationalist opposition candidate, despite numerous appeals over the conduct of the vote.
According to the Polish press agency PAP, Court President Krzysztof Wiak said that a huge number of election protests filed with the court against the election result "had not strengthened the significance of their charges" adding that "confirmed irregularities had not affected the overall voting result."
In the country's highly polarised political landscape, concerns have also been voiced over the legitimacy of the court chamber which will issue the verdict.
Karol Nawrocki, backed by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, scored 51 percent of votes to win the June 1 runoff election, according to official results - a major blow for the pro-EU government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and LGBTQ rights campaigners.
Nawrocki took 369,000 more votes than his rival, Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, the candidate put forward by the government.
Prosecutors allege the vote count was falsified in Nawrocki's favour at some polling stations, fuelling calls for a national recount.
Conservative Nawrocki narrowly wins Poland's presidential election
PiS has dismissed doubts about the vote as an attempt to "steal the election".
According to the Polish constitution, the Supreme Court must validate the ballot before the winner can be sworn in at a joint session of parliament -- a ceremony planned for August 6.
However, European courts and legal experts have questioned the legitimacy of the Exceptional Supervision and Public Matters Chamber, the Supreme Court body which will issue the ruling on Tuesday.
The European Court of Human Rights said in 2023 the Chamber does not fulfil the definition of "an independent and impartial tribunal established by law".
Tusk has criticised the Chamber, but recognised Monday that "it is the Supreme Court's responsibility to rule whether an election is valid or not".
"It is not possible...for the Supreme Court to be replaced in this matter... by the Prosecutor General or the government," the prime minister said.
'Paralyse the Supreme Court'
The Supreme Court has received around 56,000 election protests since the second round of voting.
Judges have already dismissed, without taking further action, over 50,000 complaints, many of which were based on protest templates shared on social media.
Supreme Court chief justice Malgorzata Manowska decried sending template-based protests as an "operation meant to... paralyse the Supreme Court".
Still, the court ordered the results from 13 polling stations to be recounted earlier this month.
National prosecutors later said that in some of those polling stations votes were transferred from one candidate to another, mainly in Nawrocki's favour.
Government coalition lawmaker Roman Giertych authored one of the protest templates, claiming votes had been reassigned to Nawrocki and alleging ballot rigging.
Giertych and several experts have demanded a national recount and called for the presidential inauguration to be postponed in order to clarify the alleged irregularities.
These experts assert that the previous nationalist government and outgoing president Andrzej Duda introduced reforms which have undermined the rule of law in Poland.
The reforms have long put Poland at odds with the European Commission, but the victory of a pro-EU coalition in October 2023 parliamentary elections mitigated the conflict.
Parliament speaker Szymon Holownia, like other members of the ruling coalition, has so far firmly rejected the idea of postponing the presidential oath ceremony
Independently, Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, who is also the prosecutor general, has ordered a group of prosecutors to examine "irregularities" in the vote counting.
"It is the prosecution's role... to inquire everywhere, where there is a suspicion of crime," Tusk said.
(With newswires)
