After more than three hours of deliberations on Thursday, Poland's upper house - the Senate - rejected the Bartłomiej Wróblewski's bid to replace Adam Bodnar as the Commissioner for Human Rights. The candidate backed by the ruling PiS party was two votes short from being approved.
The long debate over the new candidate for the position of the Commissioner for Human Rights was followed by a vote in which 48 senators backed Bartłomiej Wróblewski, 49 were against and 2 abstained.
This was a fourth attempt by the parliament to appoint Adam Bodnar's successor. The current ombudsman's term ended in September 2020, but as there was no agreement regarding his replacement, he remained in office.
Opposition candidate Zuzanna Rudzińska-Bluszcz was twice rejected by the lower house, while the previous PiS candidate Piotr Wawrzyk was rejected by the opposition-controlled Senate.
Poland's Constitutional Tribunal said on April 15 that there were no provisions in the constitution that would allow Bodnar to remain in office after his term had ended.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP