POLAND:Poland's foreign minister Anna Fotyga has rejected an offer of election monitors ahead of the country's general election next month, saying Poland "has nothing to hide".
Ms Fotyga was reacting to an offer from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors elections in many of its 56 member states.
Recent monitoring missions included elections in Belgium and France and next month's election in Switzerland will be covered.
"Poland has nothing to hide and our elections are carried out in a democratic way," said Ms Fotyga. A government spokesman suggested that, with the offer, Poland was being compared with a "Third World country".
OSCE members, including Poland, are obliged to accept election observers. But when the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Warsaw asked what scale of monitoring was required for next month's election, foreign ministry officials replied that they were too busy to meet.
"We still hope to get an invitation. We made it very clear that we want to be invited," said spokeswoman Urdur Gunnarsdottir.
"This is an unusual situation. I just hope that in our meetings we can clear up this misunderstanding."
Poland's opposition Civic Platform (PO), neck and neck with the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) in polls, said Ms Fotyga's remarks were further proof of the political and diplomatic ignorance of the foreign minister and the outgoing government.
Ms Fotyga hit back, blaming the PO for the OSCE's request and calling on Poles to "unite to protect Poland from opposition-inspired slander".
A month before elections, the campaign has turned dirty, with opposition politicians accusing the government of launching politically motivated investigations into their financial affairs.
Poland's leading broadcast journalist has attacked the PiS party of the prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski as a threat to democracy.
"If you vote for PiS, you are voting for the end of democracy in Poland," said Tomasz Lis to Newsweek Polskamagazine. A vocal critic of the Kaczynski twins, Polish media speculate that he was fired recently as an anchorman from Polsat TV as a result of government pressure.