On Thursday, the Sejm did not support the Senate’s resolution to reject the amendment to the electoral law. The amendment is intended by its authors, PiS deputies, to increase access to polling places for residents of small towns and increase voter turnout.
On Thursday, 235 deputies voted to reject the Senate resolution, 216 deputies voted against, no one abstained. The amendment to the electoral law means that it now goes to the president.
The Sejm approved the amendment in late January. In late February, the Senate passed a resolution rejecting the amendment. During the debate in the Senate, the rapporteur of the joint Senate committees, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski (circle of independent senators), indicated, among other things, that the committees had taken note of the views of constitutionalists on the amendment and that all were negative about the amendment.
On Tuesday, the Sejm’s Extraordinary Committee on Codification Changes opposed the Senate resolution.
Among other things, the amendment to the Electoral Act assumes better access to polling stations for residents of small towns. According to the amendment, the mayor of a rural or rural-urban municipality must provide free passenger transportation in the form of public transportation “to vote for voters on the electoral roll at a permanent polling station in the area of a particular municipality, if there is no public collective transport on election day or if the nearest communication stop of functioning collective transport is more than 1.5 km from the polling station.
Under the new regulations, a disabled voter with a severe or moderate disability and a voter who reaches the age of 60 at the latest on the day of the vote are entitled to free transportation from their place of residence to the polling station designated for the polling station.
One of the changes is based on the “revision and distribution” of the already existing voting districts. As a result of the changes – as stated in the justification – “the estimated number of new district committees is approximately 6,000”. According to the PKW website, the number of districts, including foreign ones, exceeded 27.5 thousand in the 2019 parliamentary elections.
The justification stressed that under current regulations “a permanent voting circuit should cover 500 to 4,000 voters. inhabitants”. After the changes, the permanent voting circuit will cover 200 inhabitants; the upper limit of 4 thousand. inhabitants will remain unchanged.
This change will increase the number of polling stations and their accessibility
– valued.
The changes also apply to the composition of district and regional electoral commissions. Currently, the electoral law provides that the district electoral commission consists of 4 to 10 judges and ex officio, as chairman, the Electoral Commissioner. The regional electoral commission in turn consists of 4 judges and ex officio, as chairman, the election commissioner. After the changes, they will become – instead of judges – persons “who have received higher legal training and who are guarantors of the proper performance of this position”.
Registration of commission work
The amendment also includes provisions passed in the Sejm as PiS amendments regarding the recording of the work of the constituency election commission by trustees using their own recording devices. Currently, in accordance with the Electoral Act, it is so that shop stewards can record the activities of the committee until the beginning of the voting, ie eg – check that the ballot box is empty, close and seal the ballot box, and check that there is a list of voters and the required number of ballot papers is present. And then they can only record the work of the committee from the closing of the polling station to the signing of the protocol.
However, the provision adopted with the amendment says that the activities of the constituency election committee can be recorded by the stewards from the moment the committee takes its first steps to the signing of the protocol – including during the vote.
The amendment establishes the Central Electoral Register, which will be used to determine the number of voters, compile electoral lists and lists of persons entitled to participate in the referendum and check whether they have the right to vote.
Voits, NEC and election commissioners via the National Electoral Office, the Minister of Information Technology, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and consuls have access to the CRW. The CRW is updated by the municipalities as assignment tasks. The register is maintained by the Minister of Information Technology. In the years 2022-2031, spending on CRW will amount to a maximum of PLN 91.72 million, of which: in 2022 – PLN 2.3 million; in 2023 – PLN 28.9 million; in 2024 – PLN 7.6 million; and in the years 2025-2031 PLN 7.56 million each.
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mly/PAP
Source: wPolityce