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.

The role of electoral commissioner in the process of dividing municipalities into electoral districts for municipality council elections according to Electoral Code

The Electoral Code of 2011 made a significant change in the existing rules for the conduct of elections of councilors to municipal councils introducing the principle that these elections in most municipalities in Poland will be held in single-member districts. This has caused the need for a new division of the municipalities into electoral districts, according the rules described in Electoral Code and in the guidelines of National Electoral Commission. The electoral commissioners are important in this process, because their task is to oversee the obey the electoral law by the local authorities. Their powers include i.e. the right to resolve complaints about municipal council resolution concerning the division of the municipality into electoral districts and the right to replace the municipal resolution by their own resolution if the local authority failed to perform its obligations on time or in a manner consistent with the law. The granting of these competencies to the electoral commissioners raises serious doubts as to whether the provisions of Electoral Code are not inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, and does not violate the supervisory powers of voivodes. The goal of this paper is to show the role of electoral commissioner in the process of dividing municipalities into electoral districts for municipality council elections according to Electoral Code, especially according to the line of the Constitutional Court expressed in the justification of the sentence in the case P 5/14.

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.

After the adoption of the Electoral Code, the Ukrainian electoral system entered a new state of evolution. The paper presents the basic principles of electing People’s Deputies on the basis of the Electoral Code with regard to the earlier stages of changes in Ukrainian electoral law. The Polish literature has not dealt analytically with these solutions so far. Probably the time will come when they will be implemented. The author’s intention is to describe the characteristics of the Code in the part concerning the election of popular deputies. The President of Ukraine’s proposal to amend Art. 76 and 77 of the Constitution providing for the reduction of the number of deputies to 300, the introduction of censorship for speaking the mother tongue as a condition for running for the Verkhovna Rada and the constitutionalization of a proportional electoral system indicate that the process of shaping the principles of electing People’s Deputies in Ukraine is not yet complete.

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.

Parliamentary proposals for the implementation of direct starosts and province marshals elections

Out of the executive bodies of a local self-government, only the voits (mayors, presidents of cities) are elected in direct elections, whereas on the poviat and voivodeship level, we are dealing with collective management boards, the members of which are chosen indirectly by the council of the poviat, and by the voivodeship sejmik (a regional assembly). However, this issue is not discussedparticularly frequently, in parliamentary practice there have been attempts at introducing direct elections of starosts andvoivodeship marshals, which are justified by the need of strengthening the degree of social legitimization for such offices, as well as forharmonizing the regulations which are applicable on all local government levels. The goal of this article was to proceed with a critical analysis of the projects which have been submitted within this scope, as well as to answer the question: which conditions should be met so that the introduction of a fundamental change in the starost and voivodeship martial election procedure could be assessed positively.

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 subject of this paper is to discuss the new institutions of Polish electoral criminal law, which are the penal provisions from 2018 added to the Electoral Code. These institutions, in addition to the norms guaranteeing the fairness of the electoral process and, at the same time, contributing to ensuring the fairness of elections resulting from international documents, national law, jurisprudence and views of the doctrine. The author discusses the features of a new type of prohibited act resulting from the amendment to the Electoral Code.

Postulates of the National Electoral Commission Regarding the Desired Direction of Changes to the Electoral Code

The aim of this article is to make a critical analysis of the postulates for amending the Electoral Code, proposed by the National Electoral Commission. We can agree with a large part of the above postulates, although their final normative shape will be of key importance in this case. However, there are also some proposals that can be considered at least debatable. First of all, this concerns the postulate to abandon the judicial composition of district electoral commissions, because even despite doubts as to the legality of the appointment of judges with the participation of the unconstitutional composition of the National Council of the Judiciary, guarantees of judicial independence are also a safeguard against politicization of the composition of subsequent election administration bodies. Anyway, it is worth emphasizing that the NEC’s proposals were in practice intended to constitute a form of justification for introducing changes contrary to the fundamental principles of electoral law, which took place in the winter of 2023.

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.

Central Register of Voters as a Sign of the Impact of Technological Developments on Electoral Law. Remarks in the Context of the Amendment of the Electoral Code of 26 January 2023

Author verifies the thesis that changes in electoral law in Poland take into account the progress of technology. The subject of the research is the amendment of the Electoral Code of 26 January 2023 in regard to the introduced Central Register of Voters. The conducted analysis shows that the Polish legislator follows the development of technology. This deserves approval, improving the functioning of the electoral bodies, but above all making it easier for voters to participate in the elections. However, as pointed out in the article, the amendment to the Electoral Code has been done in a way that raises a number of questions that need to be kept in mind when assessing it. In addition, the changes to electoral law in the field of technology use raise a certain shortcoming from the point of view of the omission of normative changes regarding alternative voting methods, including e-voting.

Election Commissioners – Evolution of Institutions after 2018

The purpose of this study is to analyze the political position and powers entrusted to election commissioners after the amendment of the Electoral Code in 2018. Election commissioners, as plenipotentiaries of the National Electoral Commission, participate in all types of elections, and their powers granted under the amendment to the Electoral Code strengthen their position as an electoral body, but also in relation to local government. The changes that have been made significantly increased the number of appointed election commissioners to 100, departed from the adopted judicial model, and gave the authority to an external body, i.e. the executive body, to decide which of the candidates and according to what criteria will be selected and then presented National Electoral Commission.

On the Volatility of the Concept of Demographic Norm in Elections to Municipal Councils

The demographic norm is an institution of high importance from the point of view of the final election results and the detailed rules for conducting the electoral procedure. As an instrument separating majority and proportional electoral systems, it affects the procedure for submitting candidates, the structure of constituencies and the methods of mandates distribution. The aim of the study was to present and evaluate legislative projects regarding the demographic norm in 1990–2018 period. The conducted analysis leads to the conclusion that no unified concept of the demographic norm has been developed, and the cyclical changes within discussed institution are a consequence of the current interests of political parties.

Selected Pro-Frequency (Pro-Participation) Regulations in the Electoral Code from a Social and Legal-Constitutional Perspective

The article analyzes selected amendments to the Electoral Code introduced by the law of January 26, 2023, which aim (according to the drafters) to increase voter turnout. Although the goal of the amendment should be considered legitimate, its implementation raises concerns. The study aims to present the regulations contained in Articles 37e-37g and to assess the doubts related to them, concerning: their procedure (e.g., the short period between the submission of the draft and the start of its consideration, or the vague justification of the proposed changes, or the lack of reference of the justification to objectified data) and their content (e.g., the legitimacy of adopting an age limit of 60 years while omitting residents of urban municipalities deprived of free transportation if in their municipality on election day public transportation does not function, or the distance between the nearest transportation stop and the polling place exceeds 1.5 km)

This paper has the following research thesis: An individual’s end of life has far-reaching legal effects, also in the sphere of the person’s subjective rights. The research problem consists in reflecting on the right to vote, understood as a human right, in the light of a set of legal norms that undergo changes quite frequently. The aim of this paper is to examine what concepts the legislator uses to describe the death of a person and what effects it brings in the sphere of substantive law? Does the current legal state require amendments? If so, what kind of changes? To determine this, I will examine two fundamental normative acts in the Polish system of sources of law: the Constitution and the Electoral Code. In the research conducted, I will apply the formal-dogmatic method. Apart from legal regulations, I will examine the opinions of legal scientists and some relevant judicial decisions. The Constitution does not link the consequences in the sphere of the electoral law to the end of individual’s life. Electoral Code uses the terms “death” and “died” directly providing for the end of life in special situations confirming the natural consequence of a given state of affairs and requiring various procedural steps. The author expresses the hope that his findings will become the basis for further profound research on the issues of electoral procedures related to the death of a person as: a voter, candidate or member of electoral bodies.

The Political Consequences of Maladjustment of the Number of Mandates in Electoral Districts with Demographic Changes in the Polish Parliamentary Elections 2023

The subject of analysis in this article is the allocation of mandates among electoral districts in the elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland 2023 and its political consequences. According to the principle of electoral equality in material aspect, the number of voters per mandate in individual electoral districts should be the same or as close as possible. The National Electoral Commission has pointed out that the current division into electoral districts specified in the annexes to the Electoral Code violates this principle. Shifting mandates between electoral districts would alter the balance of political power in the parliament.

Institutions of social control of the electoral process after the amendments to the electoral code in 2023

The aim of the work is to analyze the status, tasks and powers of entities implementing social control of the electoral process after the changes introduced by the Act of 26 January 2023 amending the Act – Electoral Code. The analysis of the adopted solutions allows us to conclude that most of the changes will concern the position of men of trust, i.e. entities related to election committees, and not entities observing the elections in an impartial manner. According to the new regulations, the position of men of trust will be strengthened in relation to independent social and international observers. The question is whether such a direction of changes is aimed at ensuring the transparency and fairness of the electoral process, or whether it is determined by political considerations. The study uses the formal and legal method to examine changes in the legal position of election observers and the empirical method to verify the potential effects of the adopted solutions.