Protests in Local Elections – Postulates de lege ferenda

The aim of the study is to present the problems related to the auxiliary application of the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure in electoral protest cases. Selective application of the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code by courts confuses voters and has a negative impact on their confidence in the institution of protest. An example may be the application by courts of the provisions on instruction deadlines in appeal proceedings. Similarly problematic is the assumption that the deadline for submitting a protest is a strict deadline with a simultaneous distinctness in the manner of its behavior compared to the Code of Civil Procedure. The introduction of a separate procedure regime and the ordering of the rules concerning the procedure in electoral protest will facilitate the work of courts and the access to this institution for voters.

Dysfunctionality of Election Protests in Poland in the Standard of Fair Elections

Fair elections are one of the foundations of electoral axiology in a democratic state ruled by law. Every citizen has the right to protest, and the justification of the citizen’s complaint is the public interest. An election protest is a legal measure to control the held General elections and its purpose is to protect the public interest in the electoral process. The standard of fair elections is not only a context for legal solutions strictly derived from the Constitution or the Electoral Code. The juridical architecture of electoral protests in Poland generally creates an effective mechanism to address obvious and flagrant violations of the law but remains dysfunctional from the perspective of the fair election standard. Nor does it provide an instrument to prevent a slide into electoral authoritarianism due to violations of the minimum criteria of democracy.