The impact of the proposed changes to the system of local referenda on the position of local government authorities in Poland

The article is an attempt to assess the potential effects of the changes to the Local Referendum Act currently being processed by the Sejm of the 9th term, and proposed by the circles associated with the Kukiz’15 party. The authors focused on the changes concerning referenda on revoking the authority of a local government unit, with regard to: changing the number of signatures required to order a referendum from 10% to 5% (in the case of commune and poviat authorities) and from 5% to 2.5% (in the case of voivodship authorities) and lowering the referendum validity threshold to 15% (in the case of decision-making authorities), and 3/5 of the number of votes cast for the incumbent mayor/president of the city. The hypotheses of a significant facilitation in the organization of referenda and in the dismissal of both the legislative and executive authorities of the local government were verified.