A man waves the Polish flag prior to a demonstration during Independence Day | JANEK SKARZYNSKI/AFP/Getty Polish opposition calls for international oversight of judiciary vote ‘Poland will cease not only to be a liberal democracy but a democracy at all,’ says opposition party.

WARSAW — A Polish opposition party said Saturday it had urged leaders of international organizations to send observers to parliament to oversee voting on a law that would force the entire Supreme Court into retirement and impose ministerial control over the selection of judges.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the heads of several European tribunals and human rights watchdogs, the Nowoczesna (Modern) party said passing of the law would mean that "Poland will cease not only to be a liberal democracy but a democracy at all.”

"We ask that your representatives visit Poland on 18-20 July,” the letter from Poland's second largest opposition party said. "Poland’s parliamentary opposition is determined to defend the country’s rule of law and its Constitution.”

The letter was published after Poland’s Senate, in the early hours of Saturday morning, approved two other laws — one of which disbands an independent body that nominates judges and the other of which gives the justice minister the right to dismiss the presidents of regional and appeal courts. Both laws were passed by the lower house of parliament (the Sejm) on Wednesday.

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party controls both chambers of Poland’s parliament.

The new law on the Supreme Court was introduced to the Sejm on Wednesday without any previous consultation and was pushed through so quickly that even the president, Andrzej Duda, had not been informed about it. It is up to Duda to sign all laws — so far he has approved all but one act passed by the parliament since PiS took control.

The introduction of the new law has yet to be added to the Sejm agenda for next week but it is expected that a debate and vote will take place because the session on July 18-20 is the last before the summer recess.

PiS may want to have the Supreme Court dissolved before it has a chance to pass a verdict, planned for September, on the validity of the election of the country’s Constitutional Tribunal president. Critics say procedures were broken during the election of the new president of the tribunal, a PiS nominee.

The role of the tribunal, now controlled by PiS-nominated judges, is to rule on the constitutionality of laws passed by the parliament.

The European Commission said it would discuss the situation of Poland’s judiciary on Wednesday.

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