The article concerns the analysis of procedures connected with election petitions in Poland on the basis of the constituencies under the jurisdiction of the District Court in Toruń. It should be mentioned, however, that research is currently being conducted in other courts, which even at the preliminary stage appears to corroborate the results of the analysis presented in the article. The research focuses on the guarantees of the efficiency of the electoral petition in Poland. The election petition is the most important instrument which is available to verify the validity of elections. The Constitution does not regulate this matter, entrusting the legislator with this task. The possibility of submitting an election petition implements the principle of the external judicial review of the progress of an election or referendum, which can be initiated upon the request of a legal entity entitled to submit the petition. Considering the role of the petition proceedings as well as the values which remain protected within the procedure of settlement, the legislator should demonstrate the utmost care to increase their efficiency. However, the regulations concerning election petitions are scattered around the whole Electoral Code. Furthermore, for an election petition to be justified, there must be a cause-effect link between the law violation and the results of an election, with the burden of proof placed on the petitioner. The overall result is that in judicial practice only in few cases have grievances in election petitions been considered justified.

Basic presumptions in the judicial election verification process in a democratic state

The election verification process, understood as checking the correctness of their course within the legally prescribed framework, is an essential element of the election procedure in a democratic state. This process in a relatively short period of time, must lead to the declaration of validity or nullity of the elections, which is necessary for confirming or contradicting the democratic legitimacy of elected representatives of power. The complexity of the elections translates into the complexity of the process of their verification, which, in order to simplify it, leads to the use of legally established presumptions in it. The aim of this study is the theoretical analysis of the basic election presumptions of democratic states, i.e. the presumption of validity of elections and the presumption of constitutionality of the election procedure, taking into account the systemic dangers related to their incorrect application.

Dysfunctionality of Election Protests in Poland in the Standard of Fair Elections

Fair elections are one of the foundations of electoral axiology in a democratic state ruled by law. Every citizen has the right to protest, and the justification of the citizen’s complaint is the public interest. An election protest is a legal measure to control the held General elections and its purpose is to protect the public interest in the electoral process. The standard of fair elections is not only a context for legal solutions strictly derived from the Constitution or the Electoral Code. The juridical architecture of electoral protests in Poland generally creates an effective mechanism to address obvious and flagrant violations of the law but remains dysfunctional from the perspective of the fair election standard. Nor does it provide an instrument to prevent a slide into electoral authoritarianism due to violations of the minimum criteria of democracy.