The discussion about justification for the very existence of Senate, as it was the case in previous years, also took place prior to the 2015 parliamentary elections. Postulates for the second chamber of parliament to be abolished are the inseparable element of election campaigns in Poland. Announcements of total abolishment or change of: form, competencies or number and the election principles for members of Senate, although they found their expression in the 2015 election programs of some of the political parties, but they were never applied after elections. The single member Senate constituencies secured seats almost exclusively for candidates supported by one of the two strongest political parties, that is the Law and Justice (PiS) and the Civic Platform (PO). Even if in the result of 25 October 2015 elections four independent candidates were elected for senators, three of them used support of political parties, using a rule well proven four years earlier: there is not senator without a political party protector. The 40% support for PiS which turned into 61% of seats indicates that the election system for Senate leads to overrepresentation of election winners. 

The article presents the latest trends in the electoral legislation of the Republic of Uzbekistan, which has passed successive evolutionary way of formation and development since independence. It is carried out a planned systematic work on improvement of electoral legislation in view of own national experience in conducting democratic elections and a referendum.

The adoption of new norms of electoral laws will contribute to the full implementation of the principle freedom of choice, the further democratization of the electoral system of Uzbekistan, strengthening the principles of openness and transparency of the elections.

Election posters of “Citizens’ committee with Lech Wałęsa” candidates

The article solves the mystery of the “Citizens’ Committee with Lech Wałęsa” election posters that paved the way to the victory of Solidarity in June 1989. For 25 years the issue of posters has not raised any controversy. The historians presupposed that each member of the Committee had had an election poster with the leader of Solidarity movement on it. The article refutes that myth. Having analyzed historical documents and eyewitness memories, the author uncovers which candidates did not have this kind of poster.

Celem artykułu jest określenie znaczenia wyborów prezydenckich i parlamentarnych 2015 r. dla procesu ewolucji polskiego systemu partyjnego. Autor weryfikuje trzy hipotezy – pierwszą, według której wybory nie przyniosły zmian w strukturze systemu partyjnego, drugą – wybory zapoczątkowały nowy etap w tym procesie – i trzecią, wskazującą, że wybory przyniosły nowe zjawiska w procesie ewolucji, które w przypadku potwierdzenia się i ugruntowania w przyszłości mogą wprowadzić system partyjny w nowy etap. Autor stwierdza, że trzecia hipoteza w prawidłowy sposób określa znaczenie elekcji 2015 r. Analiza bazuje na metodologii nauk o polityce i prowadzona jest zarówno w wymiarze ilościowym, jak i jakościowym.

Populist rhetoric in the parliamentary election campaign in the Czech Republic from 2017

The paper presents the history of the populist dimension. Populism is depicted in this article as a phenomenon with many planes of conceptualization. In order to combine the considerations of populism and the party system, Czech groups have been investigated, which can be included in the current commonly called modern populism in modern politics. The subject of the study was not marginal groups, including detached parties, and those which have been present on the Czech political scene since 1993: ČSSD, ODS, TOP09, KDU-ČSL, ANO 2011, KSČM.

Amendments to the Election Code in 2018 in the area of election campaign and election agitation

The aim of the article is to analyze the changes introduced to the Polish electoral law in the scope of the election campaign and agitation campaign based on the act of 11 January 2018 amending the Election Code. The conducted analysis, apart from discussing the new regulations, also includes an attempt to assess them from the perspective of constitutional and international standards, as well as indicating some of those matters which the amendment did not cover and which should be regulated beacause of the problems of electoral practice in Poland. The detailed remarks concern three functionally related thematic areas separated for the purposes of the analysis, i.e. election campaign, agitation campaign and new regulations regarding the financing of election committees during the campaign. 

Kampania wyborcza toczy się zwykle na wielu polach. Do najważniejszych należą oczywiście media, które stanowią jeden z głównych kanałów komunikacji kandydatów z wyborcami. Wśród wykorzystywanych do tego narzędzi znajdują się materiały emitowane w ramach obligatoryjnych radiowych audycji wyborczych. Autor sprawdza, jakie materiały zaprezentowały dwa główne komitety startujące w kampanii parlamentarnej w 2015 roku – Prawo i Sprawiedliwość oraz Platforma Obywatelska. Analizuje ich przekaz, rekonstruuje ich główne przesłania oraz wykorzystane środki retoryczne.

Threads of Memory in Local Government Election Campaigns. Poland 2018

The use of threads of memory during election campaigns has a great political potential. Recalling the history of the community may contribute to the success of campaign activities, thanks to which the issues of remembrance of the past appear in the strategies of many election committees. And although the problem of the use of threads of memory before elections could be discussed through the prism of the various levels of elections, this article proposes a narrower perspective. The purpose of this text is to present the issue of recalling memory – using the narratives of memory and commemoration – in local government elections. What is important, the main discussed problem is based on the case of local government elections in Poland in 2018, and is presented through the analysis of three examples of the use of threads of memory during election campaigns (the content analysis of media reports). These examples came from Katowice, Warsaw and Bialystok, and its discussion contributed to the formulation of final conclusions.

Elections of the major of Zielona Gora in 2018

The authors analyze in the article the election of the major of Zielona Gora in 2018. They pay attention to changes in electoral law, often significant for the rivalry in a campaign. They emphasize the role of mayors who have been in office for several terms. Janusz Kubicki is such a mayor. He has held this position since 2006. The analysis of the elections in 2018 was preceded by the elaboration of the election process in the years 2002–2014.

Medialny obraz polityka to, w dobie dzisiejszych kampanii wyborczych, istotne zagadnienie warte dokładnej analizy. Prezentowane w mediach wizerunki polityczne są często przedstawiane w sposób stronniczy, nierzadko subiektywny, powodując tym samym przekłamanie rzeczywistości. W artykule dokonano analizy tekstów publicystycznych zamieszczonych w tygodniku opinii „Newsweek” w czasie trwania kampanii prezydenckiej w 2015 r. Celem badania było ukazanie prezentowanych medialnych obrazów polityków oraz wskazanie na ich charakter, przy założeniu stronniczości przekazu medialnego.

The article discusses the proposals for changing the constitution, which were officially presented during the presidential election campaign in Poland in 2020. The article consists of two main parts. The first part focuses on the presented proposals of laws concerning the regulation in question, while the second focuses on the postulates resulting from the activity of candidates running for the office of President in Poland in 2020.

The presidential election campaign in Poland in 2020 was unique due to the epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. A high level of attendance during the presidential election, influenced by the pro-turnout initiatives, was achieved. The article analyzes selected activities aimed at achieving a high level of attendance, the beneficiaries of which were local governments.

Competitive advantage of political parties financed by the state budget in Poland

The article concerns the principles of financing of political parties in Poland. The thesis about creating a competitive advantage of the parties financed from the state budget over other parties was verified. An analysis of the amount of subsidies and other funds paid to eligible political parties was carried out. Particular attention was paid to the domination of funds from the budget over other sources of finance of the largest political parties. In conclusion, it was proposed to significantly limit the statutory subsidy and, as a consequence, replace it with voluntary taxation of citizens.

Przedmiotem niniejszego artykułu są wybory parlamentarne w Republice Litewskiej. Podjęto się analizy przebiegu i uwarunkowań instytucjonalnych wyborów, które odbyły się na Litwie w październiku 2020 roku w czasie trwającej pandemii Covid-19. W artykule przeanalizowano takie elementy, jak: wyniki wyborów na Litwie w 2020 r., nowe regulacje wyborcze, a także zaimplementowane nowe techniki głosowania w czasie pandemii. Oprócz tego poruszono także zagadnienia przebiegu kampanii wyborczej, która prowadzona była w warunkach obostrzeń i ograniczeń, które miały zwiększyć bezpieczeństwo wyborców oraz zmniejszyć transmisję koronawirusa SARS-CoV-2.

Politics as a strategic game: framing of 2019 Polish election campaigns in television news

The research on the information media coverage of elections deals with a concept of strategic game framing. Despite the major importance of the media in elections, there are few systematic research on the media framing in Poland. Using a content analysis of two television news programmes, the goal of the study was to evaluate the frequency of strategic game framing in comparison with issue framing and to test the hypothesis about the relationship between application of the frames and different ownership types in the media (public vs private). The findings show a key role of strategic game framing in the news programmes covering European Parliamentary elections and Parliamentary elections of 2019 in Poland and refute the hypothesis that ownership type of media predicts the frequency of analysed frames.