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.

The article examines the thesis that the electoral law in Poland is treated instrumentally. Changes of postal voting regulations in Poland have been collated with solutions applied in other countries. The analysis focuses on the motivation politicians had to revise the Election Code and introduce postal voting. The article indicates to the ad hoc nature of solutions adopted and their short-term political benefits for various political groupings. The discussion focuses on the course of political actions related to the presidential election in Poland during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which entered into force in 2011, introduced completely new regulations on the dissolution of Parliament and the duration of its mandate. It repealed the royal prerogative under which the queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister, had the power to dissolve Parliament at any time, which would ultimately lead to parliamentary elections. Despite the introduction of a fixed parliamentary term, constitutional practice, in particular the precedents of 2017 and 2019, have shown that the fundamental objectives of the new act, i.e. to ensure the stability of governments and to prevent the Prime Minister’s manipulation of the election date for political gain, can be easily undermined. This article attempts to analyze and evaluate the functioning to date of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 in the UK constitutional system and to examine the possible implications of repealing the Act for the functioning of the UK Constitution.

Elections are nowadays treated as a symbol of a democratic order. However, this view is not true. The institution of elections also occurs in states that are far from being a democracy. However, their course and functions significantly differ from the elections carried out in democratic countries. As it has been shown in the article, the analysis of the title issue becomes particularly important due to the growing group of countries referred to as hybrid regimes.

The presidential election campaign in Poland in 2020 was unique due to the epidemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. A high level of attendance during the presidential election, influenced by the pro-turnout initiatives, was achieved. The article analyzes selected activities aimed at achieving a high level of attendance, the beneficiaries of which were local governments.

When criticizing the principles of liberal democracy, radical parties, both leftand right, take advantage of this particular type of democracy by participating in local and nationwide elections. They take part in each subsequent election under their flag or by putting up candidates on the lists of other electoral committees. The major aim of the parties when participating in elections is to promote their political appeal and reaching the biggest number of local communities possible. Under the mechanisms of local democracy, including local government elections, radical parties can join in the decision-making system by investing relatively little resources.

Postal vote during the Covid-19 pandemic. Experiences from the Polish presidential election in 2020

In order to guarantee a higher level of implementation of the principle of universality of elections, many countries introduce additional (other than voting at a polling station) forms of voting in elections. Postal voting is one of the most popular alternative voting methods – complementary to traditional voting. If this form is the only way to participate in elections – there appear doubts as to the low degree of guarantee of the principle of universality. The aim of this article is to analyze Poland’s rather limited experiences with postal voting, with particular emphasis on the organization of elections during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Awakening of the young generation. Political activity of youth – a case study

In modern democracies, the fundamental type of political activities of citizens is electoral participation of all eligible groups. The appearance of the youth issue in the political discourse is the result of recognizing the young generation as a significant social group. The young generation is perceived through the prism of innovation, potential and driving force of any changes. In discussions about the future of democracy, the young generation appears very often as a sign of hope for a better world based on mutual understanding, respect, trust, and solidarity. The youngest voters have the potential to bring new values to social life thanks to which we can become a full-scale civil society. Therefore, it is important to mobilize this social group to exercise their full rights.

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.

Construction of terms in the Polish Electoral Code and the possibility of exercising electoral rights. Selected problems

 There is no doubt that it is important for the electoral process to shape the structure and chronology of electoral activities properly. This is important both from the point of view of the elections organizing services, but also the electoral committees, candidates and the voters. The statutory arrangement of terms and directional assumptions concerning them should therefore take into account the needs and capabilities of both these groups. However, due to the fact that election practice has repeatedly indicated that the assumptions about deadlines cause significant problems during the electoral process, it is worth paying more attention to this issue. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the Polish legislator, when making general assumptions about deadlines, took into account the nature of electoral rights, or whether he was mainly guided by organizational considerations

The problem of the grounds and procedure for rejecting the financial statements of the election committee

Financial statement is an important element in checking the compliant financing of an election campaign. According to the Election Code, the financial representative of the election committee should submit to the election body to which the election committee previously submitted a notification of its establishment, a financial report on the committee’s revenues, expenses and liabilities, including bank loans obtained and loans conditions. In this situation, the financial statement may be submitted to the National Electoral Commission as well as to other election bodies. However, if the report was rejected by the election commissioner, the financial representative may appeal against such decision to the District Court. Judicial practice shows that it was disputed whether a complaint could be brought in a situation where the report was accepted, but at the same time the identified shortcomings were identified. The content of the obligatory statutory grounds for rejecting the report was also questioned.

Niniejszy artykuł prezentuje konsekwencje polityczne związane z wprowadzeniem w wyborach do organów kolegialnych j.s.t. większościowego systemu wyborczego, z zastosowaniem JOW- -ów i przy użyciu formuły większości zwykłej, zaprezentowane na przykładzie województwa podlaskiego. Symulacji wyników wyborów przy systemie większościowym dokonano na podstawie danych z wyborów samorządowych z 2018 i 2014 r. w woj. podlaskim. Wnioski wyciągnięte z dokonanej analizy zostały zaprezentowane w formie końcowych konkluzji i propozycji modyfikacji aktualnego systemu wyborczego w wyborach do organów kolegialnych j.s.t.

Debut Members of Parliament in the Sejm of 7th, 8th and 9th term. The contribution for the analysis of the phenomenon of the party circulation of elite

Parliamentary representation of political parties is nowadays becoming an important field of activity of every grouping. Members of Parliament, following the standards of party charters, become an element of party elite, holding the official positions in collegiate organs. Personal changes in the parliament then mean changes in the party elite. The goal of the article is defining the scale of the phenomenon of debut Members of Parliament in the years of 2011, 2015 and 2019. The research question which the author was faced with is the question about the scale of the phenomenon of debut Members of Parliament and its consequences for the demographic structure of the Polish Sejm and the particular party representations in the parliament, defined as party elites. Detailed questions concern: the importance of parliamentary representatives in contemporary political groupings; defining whether the scale of the phenomenon in 2015 was significantly different from the election results from 2011 and 2019. The established hypotheses assume that: the important of parliamentary representation in contemporary parties is on a constant growth on the formal level and also within the political praxis, and consequently, Members of Parliament can be called party elites. Another hypothesis assumes that the phenomenon of debut MPs has stood out quantitatively in the analyzed period of time, nevertheless, it has not changed the demographic structure of the parliament dramatically, concerning the other two analyzed terms. The period of the analysis concerns the three parliamentary elections in 2011, 2015 and 2019, which allowed to pick up on the possible tendency of the phenomenon.

Verification of the validity of nationwide elections in Poland

The article discusses the procedure for verifying the validity of nationwide elections in Poland. The author draws attention to the important role attributed to elections as an essential element of the democratic system and the need to preserve the will expressed by the sovereign in voting. Verification of elections in Poland is carried out by the Supreme Court, in a two-stage procedure involving issuing an opinion on the election protests lodged and then passing a resolution on the validity of the elections. The author draws attention to the narrow and formalistic interpretation of legal norms in the course of issuing a resolution on the validity of elections.

This paper provides an assessment of the possibility of maintaining the democratic quality of the electoral process held under extraordinary conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is part of the considerations on the quality of democracy and its resistance to crisis conditions. The study was conducted using Andreas Schedler’s Chain of Democratic Choice. It covers both a general perspective and a case study of the election of the President of Poland, lasting from March to May 2020 and finally and effectively interrupted only on May 6 – 4 days before the vote. The adopted perspective makes it possible to identify and assess the potential and actual threats to maintaining the democratic nature of the election process at all its stages. Possible technical solutions that may counteract the reduction of the democratic level of the election process at individual stages have also been indicated.

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.

Under the pressure of social protests in 1989 in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, King Hussein I announced free elections. There was a revival of the system of constitutional monarchy, with a theoretically strong position of the Chamber of Deputies. Then, in 1989-1999 there was a struggle between the opposition and the monarch, who strived to maintain all real power. After 1989 the opposition was represented mainly by Islamic fundamentalists from the Muslim Brotherhood. King Hussein I managed to win the political struggle by using the tribal character of the society. The monarch maintained complete control over political processes, and the ideological opposition, both Islamic and leftist, was marginalized. However, thanks to that, the monarchy recognized real opposition, the multi-party system, and the freedom of speech. Thus, on the one hand, Jordan after 1989 has become one of the most liberal Arab states, but on the other hand, the monarch controls the parliament and the government.

Research on electoral identifications and attitudes and voting behavior is among the most popular planes of analysis of the citizens’ political participation. The presented article is a report from research carried out in the framework of the project “Political Preferences: Attitude – Identification – Behavior” in 2009 – 2014. It discusses the main assumptions and research directions, the tools used and, finally, the results obtained in the project. The presented research project is of a nationwide character, and is conducted on a representative sample of voters.

Philosophical and Theoretical View on the Meaning of Tenure

The author analyzes two approaches to the terms of office of the authorities. The study discusses the evolution of thinking about terms of office, which took place not only in doctrine, law, religion, but also in the understanding of people in power.

Instytucja ciszy wyborczej w preferencjach politycznych

Cisza wyborcza to czas, w którym zakazana jest jakakolwiek forma agitacji politycznej. Jest to czas, który ma służyć spokojnej refleksji, zastanowieniu, pozwalający na podjęcie świadomej i przemyślanej decyzji wyborczej. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest próba udzielenia odpowiedzi na pytanie, czy zdaniem polskich wyborców w dobie rozwoju nowoczesnych technologii informacyjnych i komunikacyjnych racjonalne jest utrzymanie takiego elementu systemu wyborczego jak instytucja ciszy wyborczej. W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badania przeprowadzonego w ramach ogólnopolskiego projektu Political Preferences. Badanie przeprowadzono jesienią 2019 r. w wykorzystaniem metody ankietowej na liczącej 1072 osób reprezentatywnej próbie losowej dorosłych mieszkańców Polski.