The Principle of Proportionality in self-government electoral law

Taking advantage of the freedom to determine the electoral system for self-government bodies, it was largely decided to base it on the principle of proportionality. The proportionality of elections applies in the elections to municipal councils of communes with over 20,000 inhabitants, poviat councils and regional assemblies. As a result, this results in the dominant position of the principle of proportionality in shaping electoral systems in local government elections. The article analyzes the scope and form of the principle of proportionality of elections used in practice in elections to local self-government bodies, and also assessed the adequacy of political representation from the point of view of reflecting the distribution of votes cast by voters in the election and the deviation of this distribution from proportional representation.

When in 2020 the World Health Organization announced a COVID-19 contagious disease pandemic, it was clear that governments must take actions to limit the consequences of pandemia. Poland was one of the first to introduce far-reaching measures, limiting freedom of movement and closing an increasing number of business and activities. The Polish Constitution contains potential extraordinary measures, including the provision for declaring a “state of natural disaster”, but the Polish government has refrained from enacting it. Instead, it is based on a “state of epidemic”, which is not provided for in the Constitution as the legal ground for limiting human rights. The purpose of this study is to answer the question whether human rights restrictions introduced during the epidemic have a sufficient legal basis from the point of view of the Polish Constitution and the resulting principles.