The right for electing the representatives of authority bodies is one of the fundamentals of democracy. This right entitles citizens for active public participation through expressing their support (votes) for candidates, which will respectively represent their voters in certain institutions. Polish electoral law, which regulates the local self–government elections is very controversial. The existing legal rules were changed many times since 2011. Among the subjects being discussed one can mention electoral campaigns, candidate registration rules and organization of elections. Frequent changes in the electoral law result in misunderstandings and unwillingness to participate in elections. Their effect is low voter turnout and a large number of invalid votes. To sum up considerations over a political model of large cities, it is worth to indicate that during the last 25 years of operation of Polish local government none of political models of big cities was adopted. 

The International Conference Challenges of Contemporary Electoral Law. 
Toruń, (12 June, 2015), Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. 

11 stycznia 2018 r. Sejm RP uchwalił ustawę wprowadzającą wiele zmian do Kodeksu wyborczego. Najważniejsze zmiany dotyczyły administracji wyborczej, komisji wyborczych oraz praw wyborczych. Artykuł analizuje szczegółowe konsekwencje polityczne najważniejszych z tych reform. Autor dowodzi, że część z tych zmian, w szczególności dotyczących struktury Państwowej Komisji Wyborczej i administracji wyborczej jako takiej, może doprowadzić do kryzysu organizacyjnego i politycznego podczas wyborów samorządowych w 2018 r. Nie oznacza to jednak, że zmiany w obszarze prawa wyborczego nie są konieczne. Modyfikacje są potrzebą, ale wcześniej powinny być bardzo dokładnie przemyślane. System wyborczy jest bowiem jednym z najbardziej podanych na manipulacje instrumentów politycznych. Tymczasem uczciwa rywalizacja partyjna wymaga, aby reguły wyborcze nie były zmieniane zbyt pochopnie i często, zwłaszcza bezpośrednio przed wyborami.

In December 2017 and January 2018, the Sejm and Senate, thanks to the votes of the deputies of ruling party Law and Justice, passed hugely controversial law amending inter alia Polish Electoral Code. Its adoption was opposed by the parliamentary opposition, by the electoral administration bodies and by many experts, however unsuccessfully. The enactment of this law destabilises the electoral system without a clear or evident need and treats the electoral code as a political instrument. Secondly, it does not provide the sufficient time for adaptation (vacatio legis), which may jeopardise free and fair local elections and the stability of the political system. Thirdly, the bill contains numerous unclear provisions and is in many parts written in a careless and contradictory way. Such amendments do not correspond with the European standards, described in the Venice Commission’s Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters.

Art. 63 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2 April 1997 provides everyone with the right to submit petitions to state authorities. The procedure for considering petitions is specified by the Act on Petitions of 11 July 2014. According to the law, petitions can, in particular, take the form of a request to amend the law. The aim of the article is to focus on petitions concerning the amendment of electoral law against the background general information on the legal regulations in this regard. In the 8th term of office of the Sejm, which began on 12 November 2015, there were five petitions submitted to the parliament which concerned electoral issues. The petitioners proposed amendments in regard to the manner of electing senators to the Senate of the Republic of Poland and councilors in the communities of up to 100,000 residents, strengthening mechanisms that would counteract “electoral frauds”, electoral thresholds in the elections to the Sejm and mandatory voting.

It is without any doubt that one of the most important elements of every democratic political system is a Parliament, that is, a collective authority elected in direct elections, which is simultaneously an emanation of will of citizens as a sovereign. Over the years of the technological development of societies and evolution of the economic cooperation amongst states, its role and scope of responsibilities have gradually grown. The European Parliament is one of the key elements of the institutional system of the European Union, and thus, the only body, the composition of which is elected in direct election. This body, as a forum for universal representation by the elected deputies from the member states, brings together views and positions not only of the representatives but also of their electorate. The parliament is also an expression of the multinational EU community, its voice and its desire to have influence on the fate of the entire EU.
This article presents the evolution of the European Parliament and of the election law concerning this body, since its formation as an institution of the European Union until now. The purpose of this article is to present changes which have taken place in the EU legislation in respect of the electoral law, on the basis of which members of the parliament are elected, since the formation of the EP. The main subject of this article covers following issues: how the evolution process of the parliament has looked like over the years, how its position in the institutional architecture of the EU has been evolving and how it has been endeavoured to harmonize electoral procedures to this body over the years. The article is about the evolutionary political position of the EP. The article focuses on selected aspects of unification of the electoral procedure for the election to the EP due to their path-breaking character and importance of the procedure being currently in force.

In the article, the authors compare the institutions of the Senate of the Second Polish Republic on the basis of the Constitutional Act of March 17, 1921 and the Constitutional Act of April 23, 1935. In the first part, the article presents the the way of functioning and selecting the senators in accordance with the provisions of the Constitutional Act of March 17, 1921. The second part of the article is a description of the regulations contained in the constitutional Act of 23 April 1935, on the basis of which then Senate of the Republic of Poland functioned. At the end of this article, the authors indicate similarities, but above all differences, in the functioning of the first chamber of the parliament of the Second Polish Republic.

Basic principles of electoral law in the Polish People’s Republic and the Third Polish Republic

This article presents a comparison of the principles of electoral law in the Polish People’s Republic and the Third Polish Republic: political deliberations pertaining to elections in a democratic system and an undemocratic (authoritarian) system. In theory, there were not major differences between the two. The paper does not analyse the very practice of elections.

2018 local self-government elections in Poland were special ones. Brought to light mismatching of provisions of the Electoral Code and Act on Local Self-Government Employees and attempt to use it to obtain an advantage in fight for political power caused political emotions and legal controversies. The aim of this article is presents limits imposed by criminal law on right to be elected in this type of elections and more general, role of criminal law as a tool in politics. The article presents a problem of conflict of legal regulations regarding the right to be elected and perform a public function in a local self-government unit as a problem of conflict between will of voters and attitude of politicians to creation of law and aim they try to obtain.

The article concerns the Polish regulation and practice concerning postal voting. After presenting some background information on postal voting in Poland, such as the circumstances of its introduction in 2011 and changes it has undergone since then, the author focuses on the latest amendments related to postal voting in the presidential election that were ordered for 10 May 2020. The issue has recently become extremely topical as the ruling party wanted to use postal voting for a large scale as a remedy for problems with holding the traditional election due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That idea was followed by the adoption of a specific law which, however, has aroused many controversies and great doubts about its constitutionality, mainly related to the way it was proceeded.

The conduct of free elections depends to a large extent on the efficient functioning of electoral bodies. The doctrine distinguishes a number of models of functioning of election administration bodies. The standards of functioning of electoral bodies at the European level are defined by the standards of the Venice Commission, and in particular the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters. In Poland, after World War II, the adopted model of election administration did not meet democratic standards. It was only after 1990 that the State Election Commission was established as a permanent body consisting exclusively of judges of the Supreme Court, Constitutional Tribunal and Supreme Administrative Court. This concept was abandoned in an atmosphere of massive criticism of the judiciary. Although the model adopted now does not directly violate international standards, it seems to be a step backwards from the regulations existing after 1990.

The article examines the thesis that the electoral law in Poland is treated instrumentally. Changes of postal voting regulations in Poland have been collated with solutions applied in other countries. The analysis focuses on the motivation politicians had to revise the Election Code and introduce postal voting. The article indicates to the ad hoc nature of solutions adopted and their short-term political benefits for various political groupings. The discussion focuses on the course of political actions related to the presidential election in Poland during the coronavirus pandemic.

Levellers and Universal Manhood Suffrage During the Putney Dabates (1647)

This is a review article. Its purpose is to present the findings of researchers on the English Levellers’ attitude to universal manhood suffrage, especially during the Putney Debates (1647). This issue is not clear and the dispute of researchers has been going on since the 1960s. The aim of the article is to present the findings on this issue contained in the important English studies on Levellers. The article presents the results of research that allows to answer the questions: whether the Levellers really supported the universal manhood suffrage, or were they therefore unconditional democrats? and why despite the success achieved during the Putney Debates the electoral reform proposed by them did not gain broad support.

The Principle of Equality in Elections to Bodies of Self- Governments of Public Trust Professions

The aim of this article is to demonstrate that the constitutional principles relating to elections to public authorities should mutatis mutandis be the benchmark for elections to the bodies of self-government of public trust professions. The principle of equality of the electoral law is of particular importance in this area. The analysis has been carried out on the basis of the Polish Constitution, the case law of the Constitutional Tribunal and the laws and internal acts regarding professional self-governments. It follows that a breach of the principle of equality in the internal acts of a professional self-government may be grounds for declaring them unlawful. Whereas, laws concerning these self-governments should enable the scrutiny of elections. The considerations lead to the conclusion that topics combining the position of professional self-governments and democratic standards of the election law can be a field of interesting research in the domain of constitutional law.

In recent years, Armenia and Georgia have carried out constitutional reforms bringing about a radical change in their respective political systems with a shift to a parliamentary model of government. To permanently democratize both countries, the role of presidents in political systems was weakened and their election was introduced indirectly. The paper discusses the main elements of presidential electoral law in both countries with their main similarities and differences. In Armenia, the president is elected by the parliament, while in Georgia by a special electoral body. The following paper argues that the constitutional reforms in both countries are intended to prevent crises of power caused by an excessive concentration of power in the hands of presidents, although the reforms do not provide a guarantee of genuine democratisation and authoritarstability of governments. The possible outcomes of the reforms can be different: in Armenia – the increase of the dependence of the president on the main political parties, in Georgia – strengthening his independence.

The aim of this paper is a comparative analysis of the new methods used to organise the 2020 general elections in Poland and the Czech Republic, which were held in the state of the SARS-19 virus pandemic. This paper analyses the voting methods introduced in connection with sanitary regulations in both countries and the scale of votes cast in this way in relation to the total. It discusses and compares the requirements introduced that voters and electoral commission members had to meet on voting day to minimise the risk of infection with the virus. The text shows a number of similarities in both countries in terms of the measures applied to prevent the spread of the virus associated with a personal visit to a polling station. An additional aspect of the comparative analysis of the covid-voting methods in the two countries was a discussion of voting rules for those infected or in quarantine on voting day. Analysis of the data showed that in both countries the alternative voting method, was not very popular.

The Right to Vote for Non-Residents

The article deals with the possibility for country’s non-citizen residents to participate in elections, in the political life they wish to participate in. This issue remains outside the mainstream of jurisprudence and doctrine, but it is important due to the increased social mobility. The article presents the practice of selected countries and documents of international law relating to the title issue. Theoretical and comparative issues were confronted with Polish solutions regulating voting issues of Polish citizens residing abroad. The article also contains proposals for necessary legislative changes, the introduction of which to the electoral code will guarantee respect for the universality of electoral law. The article uses the legal-dogmatic method, supplemented to the necessary extent by the legal-comparative method.

Change in the Status and Powers of the Pool Watchers after the Enactment of the January 26, 2023 Amendments to the Election Code

The amendment to the Election Code made on 2023 significantly changed the status and powers of the pool watchers. If they observe the voting for at least 5 hours and observe the entire process of determining the results of voting until the signing of the voting protocol, they will receive 40% of the flat-rate allowance of members of ward electoral commissions. The chairmen of ward electoral commissions are obliged to keep records of the working time of the pool watchers. The most controversial issue is granting them the possibility of registering all activities of ward electoral commissions on election day using their own devices recording all activities of the ward electoral commission also during voting. This solution violates the principle of secrecy of voting, the right to privacy, and may be treated as an unacceptable form of pressure on the voter regarding the content of his vote.

Nacional Electoral Commission – History and Present Day

This paper aims at sectional presenting of the evolution of the National Electoral Commission (PKW) as the highest and the only permanent election commission in Poland – from the interwar period to the modern times. For that reason, this paper enumerates the members of the first polish National Electoral Commission which was constituted by the regulations of the Electoral System to Sejm of the Republic of Poland of 1922 as well as the way of appointing of PKW in the consecutive electoral statutes. Furthermore, during analysing of the personel of PKW, the author references to the provisions of Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters adopted by the Venice Commission. The main conclusion of this paper is that contemporary and historical structure of the personal composition of PKW are very similar to each other.