Following a ghost election that saw polling centres closed and members of the electorate absent, the main opposition party in Poland, the liberal Civic Platform (PO), has announced Warsaw Mayor, Rafal Trzakowski as its new presidential candidate ahead of a yet-to-be-announced new election date.

The party and its partners made the swift announcement on Friday, in response to the resignation of its former candidate, Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, who had made the decision to step out of the raceafter losing a majority of the party’s support for her decision to support a boycott of the controversial elections held amid the coronavirus pandemic last Sunday.

Prior to his recent appointment as the party’s candidate, Trzakowski had served as a European minister and member of the European parliament, before winning the mayoral elections in Warsaw in 2018 against the candidate of the governing right-wing in Poland, the Law and Justice party (PiS).

He, however, needs to gather at least 100,000 signatures of support before he can run against the front-runner, incumbent President Andrzej Duda, and a few other candidates, including the nonaligned TV journalist Szymon Holownia, who is rising in opinion polls.

“I’m assuming the huge responsibility of fighting for a strong state and for democracy,” Trzaskowski told reporters, referring to controversial PiS judicial reforms that have raised concern about the rule of law in Poland.

Originally set for May 10, the election encountered hiccups at the last minute when the government and opposition parties failed to agree on how to proceed under the coronavirus lockdown.

Changes are currently being made in legislation to allow for the casting of ballots at voting stations and an optional postal vote. The new date for the election should fall before late July. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawieckihas said he would like it to be in June as President Duda’s term expires on August 6, 2020.