Poland's ruling party coalition partner against May election - Kaczynski

WARSAW (Reuters) - A junior partner in Poland's ruling coalition is opposed to going ahead with a presidential election on May 10 due to the risk of the coronavirus spreading during the polls, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the country's de facto leader, said on Friday.

Kaczynski, who heads the Law and Justice (PiS) party, said on public radio that the election should go ahead and the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, would vote on Friday for the vote to be conducted by post.

Jaroslaw Gowin, who heads the Porozumienie (Accord) in the coalition led by Kaczynski's PiS told Polska Times.pl daily in an interview published on Friday that he was against the election taking place at this time, but said he has never threatened to pull out of the coalition.

"The decision about the date of the election has to take into account the epidemic situation. There is no space for any political games. This is a matter of life and death," Gowin said.

Opposition parties also want the vote to be postponed, saying that restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic do not allow them to conduct campaigns and that holding the vote - even via post - is dangerous for people's health.

"He (Gowin) justifies this on medical grounds. It is hard to say what his decision will be," Kaczynski said.

Kaczynski, who has no formal position in the government, is seen as the most powerful politician in Poland.

The PiS-led coalition holds 235 of the 460 seats in the lower house, and it would lose its majority if Porozumienie were to quit.

There were 392 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, the highest daily increase so far, and it took the total number of cases to 2946, according to the Health Ministry data. As of Thursday, 57 people had died.

(Reporting by Marcin Goclowski, Pawel Florkiewicz and Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Writing by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Tom Hogue & Simon Cameron-Moore)