Poland to hold parliamentary election on Oct. 15, launching campaign in shadow of war in region

By VANESSA GERA
Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president has announced that the country will hold its parliamentary election on October 15. The announcement on Tuesday marks the official start of an electoral campaign that has informally been underway for months and is being shaped by Russia’s war against Ukraine. The election campaign begins amid rising anxieties in Poland over the presence of Russia-linked Wagner mercenaries across the NATO nation’s northeastern border in Belarus, where they have arrived by the thousands since a short-lived mutiny in Russia in June. Tensions have also been growing with ally Ukraine, to the country’s southeast, over grain imports and historical memories of past ethnic conflicts.