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.

Using data from a nationally representative survey in Poland, this study looks at the links between post-election attitudes, ideology and conspiratorial distrust toward public sphere. The reference point is an argument made by Joseph Uscinski and Joseph Parent. They provide evidence that conspiracy theories are more popular among election losers in the United States. Data presented in the article shows a limitation of the argument and the special role of anti-system party in the Polish parliamentary election of 2015. Therefore, the more comprehensive understanding of conspiracy theories within the field of political science is discussed.

The Concept of Constitutional Reform of the  Republic of Poland According to the Polish Solidarity Party

In May 2013 the party of the Polish Solidarity with Zbigniew Ziobro (further called „SP”) announced the project of changes in the current Constitution of the Republic of Poland from 2 April 1997 (further called „Constitution RP”). This project was presented in the form of consolidated text of the constitution which obtained the name of „New Constitution of the Republic of Poland” (further called „Project SP”). The Project SP proposes amendments or repeals of 83 articles of the Constitution RP (it makes a bit more than a third of its all articles) as well as addition of nine articles, not always completely new as for their solutions. The Project SP proposes introducing changes in the Constitution of RP covering in particular: system of legal sources, list of general rules of the system of state, forms of direct exercising power by the nation, especially introducing the presidential system of government, which mean far-reaching reforms of constitutional system of authorities. The article focuses the attention on their analysis and assesses them from the viewpoint of their democratisation, rules of legal state and contributing to rising effectiveness of activities of authorities while comparing them with regulations introduced by the Constitution of 1997. The estimate of proposals of constitutional system of RP covered by Project SP is not to be unidirectional – only approving or only critical. Some of these proposals deserve a positive mark, others arouse estimative dilemmas due to their loose ends or controversial character; finally there are those which cannot result in other than negative marks.

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.

Rights of national minorities in the election law of the Croatian Sabor

The article is devoted to the election law in force in the Republic of Croatia, in particular to the provisions regulating the procedure for electing representatives of national minorities. In Croatia, the electoral system for the Sabor consists of three separate methods of selecting deputies. The first and fundamental one involves the election of 140 deputies in 10 constituencies. In each of the constituencies, 14 representatives are elected on the basis of a proportional system, using the d’Hondt method and the 5% electoral threshold applied to the constituency scale. The second is used in the election of three representatives of the Croatian diaspora. The constituency is the entire world, and the distribution of seats is also made proportionally using the d’Hondt method. The third, used in the election of 8 representatives of national minorities, is the majority system. The article analyzes the method of electing minority representatives and the consequences of applying this election procedure.

Non-electoral tasks of the National Electoral Commission

Apart from its main functions connected with preparing and holding elections, the National Electoral Commission has to fulfill many other tasks entrusted to it both by the Election Code and by many other acts. Therefore, we can divide these tasks into two categories: the tasks of an electoral nature and the tasks of a non-electoral nature. The article presents the tasks carried out by the National Electoral Commission in the non-electoral sphere. Among them there are also particularly significant issues connected with financing the politics, both in terms of considering the reports of political parties and electoral committees. The wide scope of tasks performed by the National Electoral Commission, including those that have a direct impact on the shaping of Polish democratic system substantiate the thesis about the necessity of constitutionalization of the National Electoral Commission.

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.

The Bundestag is the largest democratically elected parliament in the world, only the Chinese National People’s Congress is larger. At the moment, 138 more members sit in the Berlin Reichstag than the legally required size, thanks to overhang and compensatory mandates. The Federal Constitutional Court has already declared the federal electoral law unconstitutional several times. All parties agree that the German Bundestag must become smaller again. This is to be achieved by fundamental reform of the electoral law.

The objective of this article is to attempt to analyse the new regulations in The Law of the Ukraine in Elections of People’s Deputies of Ukraine of November 17, 2011 in the context of the guarantee of compliance with the principle of alternation in power. The authors ask questions is the answer to the following question: To what extent do the new regulations in electoral law guarantee the principle of alternation in power and to what extent do they contribute to the monopoly of the ruling party. Considering the research problem presented in the introduction it is necessary to state that, on the one hand, partial guarantee’s of the principle alternation in power is a characteristic trait of the Ukrainian electoral system, while on the other hand, aspiration of the ruling party to maintain its monopoly is also fairly evident.

The Issue of Direct Submission of Candidates for Members of District Electoral Commissions

The aim of the article is to analyze the solution that allows voters to report directly to a member of the district electoral commission (without the participation of the election committee), in particular to present the advantages of such a solution from the point of view of the fairness of the election. The indicated procedure is an interesting solution both from the point of view of the voter and the election administration. In the first case, it eliminates the need for the voter to manifest his political sympathies. In the second one, it regulates the procedure of supplementing the committee members in the event of vacancies. As part of this paper, an attempt was also made to answer the question of what potential this procedure may have in the context of improving the electoral process. The formal and legal method was used in the work.

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.

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.

The adoption of smart card technology in various parts of Africa has reduced electoral malpractices, resulting in election credibility and acceptability. However, its use in Nigeria’s electoral process is believed to have downsides. The paper investigates how adopting smart card technology reduced electoral malpractices during the 2019 presidential election, making it more transparent, credible, and reliable than the traditional technique. It uncovers the flaws of the technology in Nigeria, including card reader malfunction, delays in accreditation and voting, the inability of the INEC staff to operate the technology efficiently during voting, and election postponement, among others. It is therefore recommended that the INEC improve public awareness of the use of the technology and train its staff.

The thesis of this paper applies to the mediatization of politics process during American presidential campaign of 2008. It is entrenched in the theory of political communication. Because of the primary assumptions in the analysis below, political communication is considered mainly from perspective of the models of relations between the mass media and politics, which are treated as systems. It is justified because those relations influence the abovementioned systems and play the biggest role in affecting mass society and culture. In this thesis, the public is considered as having less influence on entire process of political communication. In order to clarify the subject of the research, the division into structural and functional mediatization was created. Structural mediatization, which is the main subject of the analysis, occurs when structures of the media and political systems come into dependence and subordination relation. Parts of the media system dominate over the analogical elements in the political system, internalizing media logic. Individual elements of the political world comply to the media logic and the media orders. Subjects of the political system implement political marketing methods to use the dominant role of the media in the process. Functional mediatization can be defined as a transfer of systemic relations at the smallest possible level – specific case in micro scale,when the medium controls a political actor. Here, the mediatization takes its most radical form. The medium on every stage of constructing the political reality can manipulate and deform a media political reality

Current Limitations and Possible Ways to Increase the Level of Representativeness of Elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland

The problem of distortion of the representativeness of elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland is widely noticed. Now, the vote of the inhabitants of one constituency may weigh less that in another. The aim of this paper is to present de lege ferenda postulates to increase the level of representativeness of Sejm elections. The authors carry out a legal analysis and a classical systemic analysis, pointing out the deficiencies of the current electoral system and proposing solutions. There are research questions: (1) Does the current electoral system ensure that elections to the Sejm are truly representative? (2) Is it possible to ensure that elections to the Sejm are truly representative? The conclusions of the analysis show that the problem under study appears to be increasingly serious for the democracy and civil society, but there are legal solutions that can increase the level of representativeness of Sejm elections.

Electoral processes in many African countries including Nigeria, are faced with the challenges of conducting free, fair, credible and violence-free elections. Political violence has become a stain on Nigerian democracy. This paper therefore examined the impact of political violence on national security in Nigeria. The paper adopted the descriptive analytical approach. This study found out that Political violence in Nigeria is now a stain in our democracy that is now seen as a political structure and strategy for employment during elections and the use of weapons during elections have an aftermath impact on the national security. Consequently, some recommendations were made by the researcher. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has to take conscious and strategic actions against political violence in the country (Nigeria), due to the fact that action and inaction of the government of the country plays a very important role in either stopping or continuing the menace. Appropriate security network and intelligence should be organized to monitor electoral activities of the country to mitigate incidences of violence. The Independent National Electoral Commission should conduct free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria while the political parties and their candidates should ensure strict compliance with electoral regulations of the country (Nigeria).

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.