The presidential election has grown increasingly divisive as critics, including former EU head Donald Tusk, accuse PiS of putting its own political interests before public safety. /Michal Ryniak/Agencja Gazeta/Reuters

Donald Tusk, ex-Polish prime minister and former EU head, has called on voters in Poland to boycott the upcoming presidential elections out of "basic human decency" amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Poland is the first European country to hold an election during the pandemic, planning to get past social-distancing measures by using postal ballots.

However, only 30 percent of Poles are expected to participate in an election that has become highly divisive amid the growing death toll from the coronavirus, as critics including Tusk continue to accuse the ruling nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) of subverting the constitution.

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"Basic human decency does not allow us to participate in what is being proposed," the former president of the European Council said in a video on Twitter, stating that he would not be voting.

"If you don't know how to act, be decent," he said, quoting the late political activist, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, who is considered by many Poles to be a moral authority.

Tusk, who now leads the center-right European People's Party (EPP), added that he thought PiS could be persuaded to set up an alternative election plan that could be "safe and fundamentally fair."

There are currently 12,089 confirmed coronavirus cases and 570 deaths in Poland. 

In a bid to stop the spread of the virus, the government has closed schools and the majority of shops, with masks now compulsory while outside. However, the government has so far decided to push ahead with the postal vote plan for the presidential election, despite mounting pressure. 

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Voting in a crisis

The election has grown increasingly divisive as critics accuse PiS, which is currently outstripping its rivals in the polls, of putting its own political interests before public safety, a claim the party refutes.

As the lockdown measures are set to hammer the Polish economy, PiS is concerned support could dwindle as the pandemic plays out. Without the re-election of sitting president Andrzej Duda, the government's push to reform the country's judiciary, a move heavily criticized by the European Union, may prove more difficult.

Poland's opposition parties are still divided on whether or not to take part in the election, with only the centrist Civic Platform, a political group that Tusk once led, calling for a boycott.

Parliament will have to decide on 6 May whether or not the vote will take place with the postal ballot system in place, just days before the election on 10 May.

PiS is considering whether to postpone the vote by a week or two, which is in keeping with the Polish constitution, but the government would first have to declare a state of emergency to delay it any further.

The party and its conservative allies have a majority in parliament, but sections of the ruling coalition have indicated they may reject the postal ballot vote and propose pushing the election back by two years.

According to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), running the election via postal ballot could disenfranchise voters living abroad and limit scrutiny from election observers.