The role of the administrative court in the process of dividing a commune into constituencies

The manner of determining the division of a commune into electoral constituencies and determining the number of seats per district is an expression of the implementation of the principle of equality of elections in a material sense. The proper division of a commune into constituencies is a guarantee of the equality of electoral law. The Electoral Code of 2011, originally stipulated that no legal remedy was available to the decisions of the National Electoral Commission issued as part of the verification of the provisions of the electoral commissioner. The Constitutional Tribunal, by a verdict of 6 April 2016, ruled that this regulation is unconstitution. The Act of January 11, 2018 introduced a two-instance control of the legality of the division of the commune into constituencies (before the provincial administrative court and before the Supreme Administrative Court). Subsequently, it was considered that, given that electoral activities related to the formation of constituencies and the change of their borders are covered by the electoral calendar and must be carried out without undue delay that the judicial review procedure should assume speed and efficiency of proceedings in this matter. The Act of June 15, 2018 amending the Act – Election Code and certain other acts amended the provisions on the jurisdiction and mode of judicial review of the electoral bodies’ acts on matters related to the creation of constituencies and on the deadline for lodging appeals and complaints to the court. Court proceedings in this matter have become one-instance, and complaints about resolutions of the National Electoral Commission regarding the division communes into electoral constituencies are to be recognized only by the Supreme Administrative Court. 

The article aims to draw attention to such an administrative procedure in which a citizen’s right to control administrative decisions issued by an administrative authority is guaranteed. This control is carried out mainly in the course of an instance examination of a case. The analysis of solutions in this respect against the background of constitutional guarantees will allow for the answer of whether legal solutions guarantee the right of an individual to hear an administrative case. The analysis of these solutions is based on the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal and administrative courts and the views contained in the literature.

This study investigates legal effects of appealing against a decision in part in the context of the constitutional principles of the protection of acquired rights, a two-stage procedure and the rule of law, which are determinants of standards of a democratic state ruled by law, and to formulate relevant conclusions. This is done by means of an analysis of the law in force and a comparative analysis, with a focus on the subject matter of the attribute and effects of a decision’s final force.