The lower house of the Polish Parliament adopted an amendment to the electoral code in order to increase voter turnout in this year's parliamentary elections, which according to the opposition is illegal and will benefit the ruling party, British media reported.

According to the changes, it will be possible to open more polling stations in villages with only 200 inhabitants, and bus transportation will have to be organized to the stations for people over 60 years old or for people with disabilities if there is no regular public transportation.

Critics of the adopted amendments say that the electoral code should not be changed in the year in which the elections will be held. They refer to the ruling of the Constitutional Court, which states that no substantial changes should be made to the code six months before elections are scheduled.

The amendments must also be passed by the Upper House of Parliament, and then the provisions must be signed by the President to become law, so it is unlikely to come into force in this time frame.

Poland will hold parliamentary elections in October or November, and while the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has strong support among older and rural voters, is still leading in the polls, support for it has begun to decline due to the cost of living crisis.

Donald Tusk, the leader of the main opposition party, Civic Platform, said that changing the rules in an election year "violates the basic principles of democracy."

"If PiS is willing to manipulate the electoral law to increase its electoral chances, it is easy to imagine that they will be capable of other types of manipulations as well," Tusk said.

The vice-president of PiS, Rishard Terlecki, however, said that the only purpose of the changes is to increase voter turnout.

Analysts say it is difficult to assess the impact of the new rules on election results at this stage, but such changes introduced so close to the election are illegal and will be difficult to enforce.

"Our research shows that it will not increase voter turnout, the effect will be minimal. If this was a sincere idea, they would increase the number of polling stations mostly in places with a high population density, in the cities, comments Ana Materska - Sosnoowska," a political scientist at the University of Warsaw.