Opposition Announces Pact To Jointly Contest Senate Election

Major Polish opposition parties announced that they reached a deal to contest this year's Senate election as a single bloc.

• The Senate election is held under an FPTP system, which means that the deal is essentially a non-aggression pact, whereby parties would select a joint candidate for each constituency.
• While the move was leaked to the press last week, Onet reports today that the parties are yet to agree on the list of candidates amid frictions over the timing of the announcement and the allocation of seats.
• The news portal notes that opposition parties believe that they could win as many as 65 seats in the 100-member upper house if all of them respect the terms of the deal.
• However, the Senate has limited influence over the legislative process in the Polish political system. The main electoral battle this year will be for the control over the lower house.