Warsaw, (Samajweekly) Polish President Andrzej Duda was sworn in for his second five-year term in office after he was re-elected in a run-off on July 12.
Duda was administered his oath of office on Thursday by the National Assembly, the country’s joint sitting of both houses of parliament, reports Xinhua news agency.
He won the run-off elections with with 51.03 per cent of the votes, while his rival, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski received 48.97 per cent.
But the oath-taking ceremony was marred by the absence of MPs and senators from the opposition Civic Coalition party, claiming that the elections were unfairly slanted toward the incumbent, Polish media reported.
Poland’s Supreme Court had rejected the opposition party’s legal protest on Monday, ruling that any irregularities that took place did not influence the final outcome.
In an address to lawmakers, Duda said the presidential election had been difficult due to the coronavirus pandemic and the postponement of its date.
“But the most important thing is that we managed to hold the election in a democratic, just and very efficient way,” he said.
Duda also said that everything had to be done to avoid unemployment.
“For years, high unemployment was shattering the dreams of the Polish people. Today, in the face of the crisis, we have to do everything possible for such a situation not to repeat itself,” he said.
Duda is the second president in post-communist Poland to win a second five-year term, after Aleksander Kwasniewski from 1995 to 2005.
