Organization of elections in Spanish-speaking countries – selected issues

Elections and its organization is a very important issue in democratic countries. Legislative shall look for interesting models in other countries. In Spanish and South American laws we can find some inspiring solutions in the fields like: electoral administration, external voting, electoral campaign, the day of general election, counting of votes. For sure those solutions take into consideration the peculiarity of particular countries, but can be a good inspiration for Polish legislative.

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.

The subject of the analysis in the article is a new auxiliary apparatus – the corps of electoral officials. Implemented by the Act of 11 January 2018 on amending certain acts to increase the participation of citizens in the process of selecting, operating and controlling certain public bodies, amendment of the Act of 5 January 2011 – the Electoral Code, introduces this institution. The experience of the local government elections held on October 21, 2018 allows for an initial assessment of the introduced code regulation regarding the new apparatus – the electoral corps. The use of this institution, as a kind of novelty, also allows for the formulation of many detailed proposals of recommendations aimed at eliminating or minimizing the problems and irregularities in the operation of this apparatus, which is the purpose of this scientific article.

District Electoral Commissions in Municipal Elections. Selected Issues in the Light of Practice of Local Election From 2018

The subject of the article is the analysis of the shape of district electoral commissions in municipal elections. The considerations contained in the paper were based on the binding legal regulations and the conclusions from the electoral practice of the municipal elections from 2018. The first part of the article discusses the significance of the electoral commissions for the electoral process. The second part of the study is devoted to the procedure for nominating candidates of the commissions. Subsequently, the entities responsible for appointment of the electoral commissions and the current rules for their functioning are discussed. Finally the article contains the conclusions with critical remarks about the current institutional shape and the mode of appointing the electoral commissions.

Changes in the system of the Polish election administration in 2018–2020

Recently there have been made many amendments to Electoral Code. They concerned mostly electoral administration and further are being announced. The article is an attempt to summarize made and proposed changes from the perspective of basic principles concerning electoral management in democracy, in particular impartiality and efficiency of electoral management bodies. Analyse shows mainly the lack of complex vision for electoral administration, which is highly inadvisable.

The aim of the text is the analysis of the tasks and activities of the municipal self-government during the organization of the 2020 election of the President in Poland during the period from the beginning of February to May 10, 2020, when, due to the development of the pandemic, the process of preparing the election took a different course. The study is based on documents and five in-depth expert interviews conducted with persons associated with the organization of the elections. This publication draws attention to the lack of knowledge about various aspects of the pandemic, the protraction of the decision-making process, the lack of cooperation, and citizens’ fears.

Local Government in the Process of Organizing General Elections During the Pandemic – The Experience of the 2020 Presidential Election in Poland

The aim of this text is to analyse the tasks and activities of the municipal government during the organisation of elections in the period after 12 May 2020, when elections were originally scheduled for, but in which no voting took place. A particular element of the context of this election was the pandemic threat. The study is based on source documents and five expert interviews conducted with people involved in the organisation of elections. The analysis focuses on two areas – the expansion of postal voting and sanitary restrictions at the polling station. This study draws attention to the increased tasks of local government and the short time for adaptation to the new legal regime.