A former Polish prime minister has poured scorn on the idea of the country’s citizens voting online, claiming net users are too busy boozing and surfing porn.

Arch conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski was ousted from his post last year, though his twin brother, Lech, retains the presidency of the country.

The brothers’ party is supposed to be reaching out to younger votes by engaging with the web, despite their stridently anti-gay, anti-foreigner and apparently anti-21st century stance.

However, Kaczynski, who claims not to even have a bank account, never mind a mobile phone, seemed to have a low opinion of the country’s tech-savvy younger citizens if a recent interview on the party’s website is anything to go by.

"I am not an enthusiast of a young person sitting in front of a computer, watching video clips and pornography while sipping a bottle of beer and voting when he feels like it," he said, according to Reuters.

He claimed that internet users were easy to manipulate, and mobilise to vote. The news will no doubt infuriate the country’s netizens, should they actually notice it through their booze and porn-addled haze.

Whether Kaczynski’s really believes smut and vodka are the real issues is open to question.

A large portion of the country’s population is working overseas, particularly the younger, better qualified citizens. These ex-pats might be expected to be interested in voting online – it’s a long way from London to a polling booth in Warsaw after all. But letting these arguably more cosmopolitan youngsters vote online may simply not be appealing to conservatives like Kaczynski. ®

Related stories

• Survey: young Brits ready to embrace evoting (27 April 2007)
• Irish e-voting emerges from the crypt (24 October 2006)
• DCA goes all bashful on ID card voting linkage (13 January 2006)
• Estonia's local elections to be settled online (11 October 2005)
• E-gov to cost Europe €4bn+ (4 February 2005)