NI polling stations to open for Polish citizens

Hundreds of Polish people will have the chance to vote in the European elections in specially chosen voting booths in Northern Ireland.

Voting will take place on Sunday between 07:00 and 21:00 BST, with the count immediately afterwards and the results then sent to officials in the Polish capital, Warsaw.

Poland is one of 27 EU countries voting from 6-9 June to elect members of the next European Parliament.

There will be polling stations in Newry and Omagh, as well as Belfast and Ballymena.

About 373 million voters are eligible to take part – from Finland in the north to Cyprus in the south, Ireland in the west to Bulgaria in the east.

There are an estimated 25,000 Poles living in Northern Ireland, with around two-thirds above the voting age of 18.

The deadline to register to vote in Sunday’s election in Poland was Tuesday.

In Northern Ireland, just over 800 people signed up, which is almost double the number who registered for the last European elections in 2019.

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has made a stark warning to citizens to to get out and vote if they don’t want to go to war.

A Polish consulate in Belfast opened in 2018 and its officials are overseeing Sunday’s voting in the four different venues.

Mariusz Stus, the current Consul General, said he was pleased by the response to the election.

He told BBC News NI: “We have 809 voters registered in the four polling stations and it’s quite a big increase from the previous European election. We are really happy about that.

“Every vote counts. It provides the Polish community here the opportunity to somehow participate in political life that we have back in Poland.”

At the same time, he said he hoped it would encourage people to get more involved in local politics in Northern Ireland.

He thanked the Electoral Office in Belfast for allowing the consulate to borrow polling booths.

Poland elects 53 members of the European Parliament (MEPs).

Ireland elects 14. Germany has the most, electing 96.

Most countries vote on Sunday but some, including the Netherlands and Ireland, vote earlier.

One of the first tasks of the new MEPs will be to elect the president of the European Commission.

The current president, Ursula von der Leyen, is seeking re-election.