Asked whether the commission would start work before October 15, Mueller replied: "I don't know and there is no such priority, the commission itself will decide about it."
Andrzej Jackowski/PAP
A commission to investigate alleged Russian influence on Polish internal security may not start work before the elections, the government spokesman has said.
Poland goes to the polls on October 15, and the opposition has claimed that the commission could be used as a political tool to exclude its political leaders from the election process.
A deadline for political parties to nominate their candidates for the commission had been set by the lower house speaker for 8pm on Tuesday, August 29.
Law and Justice (PiS), the governing party, was the only political grouping to nominate their candidates for the commission, an idea which was originally initiated by PiS politicians, by the deadline.
Talking to a private broadcaster Polsat News on Wednesday morning, Piotr Mueller, the government spokesman, said he hopes that the agenda of the Wednesday sitting of the Sejm, lower house, would include the election of the commission’s members.
He added that it would take several weeks for the commission to be constituted and the chairperson elected.
Asked whether the commission would start work before October 15, Mueller replied: “I don’t know and there is no such priority, the commission itself will decide about it.”
The law establishing the commission, which will cover the years 2007 to 2022, came into force on May 31, but just after signing it into law, Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, tabled an amendment causing a delay.
The commission, which in its original unamended guise would have had the power to bar politicians from public office if they had been found to have been operating under Russian influence, sparked severe criticism with even the US and EU expressing disapproval.
Critics feared, in particular, the commission could be used to prevent opposition leader Donald Tusk, who is also a former prime minister, from running in the elections.