Today’s meeting of the Investigative Committee starts by hearing the opinion of expert Wojciech Hermeliński, a retired judge of the Constitutional Court. Later, the committee will hear former chairman of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek as a witness.
The Commission starts its work today by listening to five opinions from its appointed expert Wojciech Hermeliński.
Expert opinion
Hermeliński explained whether on April 6 and 16, 2020, there was a legal possibility to make changes to the provisions of the electoral law model elections for the President of the Republic of Poland by order of the Speaker of the Sejm, scheduled for May 10, 2020.
In light of the case law of the Constitutional Court, such a possibility did not exist. In its rulings, the Constitutional Court said that possible changes to the electoral law can be made six months in advance, and that this period is counted from the first action that triggers the electoral procedure, i.e. from the date on which the elections are passed designated. Chairman of the Sejm.
– said a former judge of the Constitutional Court.
In fact, on August 5, six months before the election date, a law should be ready that changes the procedure. Of course, back then, in the summer, it did not occur to anyone that a pandemic would break out and that legal changes would have to be made in a hurry, but formally this was not possible at the last minute.
– added.
Hermeliński quoted the Constitutional Tribunal’s judgment: “It should therefore be necessary, as a kind of minimum minimum, to introduce significant changes to the electoral law at least six months before the next elections, which are not only understood as the voting itself, but like all activities that fall under the so-called election calendar. Any exceptions can only arise from extraordinary circumstances of an objective nature. (…) It is even more necessary to emphasize that the need to observe a period of six months from the entry into force of major changes in the electoral law until the first action of the electoral calendar is in principle an indelible, normative part of the content of Article 2 of the Constitution.”
Wojciech Hermeliński referred to the urgency of the situation at that time and the validity of the implementation of the changes to the electoral law.
Undoubtedly, the content of this and subsequent statements showed that the April 6 deadline, when the project to completely amend the electoral law was submitted, was grossly late. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the Venice Commission of the European Council, in the Code of Good Electoral Practice, even provides for a one-year period for this legislative silence and emphasizes that any electoral changes should not be made in terms of the next elections , but in terms of the next elections that follow. From this point of view, these deadlines were unacceptable. I understand that it was an emergency situation, but in such an emergency situation there were other options, which I will discuss in a moment. The bill submitted to the Sejm on April 6 radically changed the Electoral Law, stripping the National Electoral Commission of most of its powers and even virtually eliminating the National Electoral Commission from the electoral process. First of all, the National Electoral Commission was deprived of the ability to determine the map design, which is one of the most important things before voting itself.
– he said.
Regulatory compliance
In his opinion, Hermeliński assessed whether the procedure for adopting the law of April 6, 2020 on special rules for holding general elections for the President of the Republic of Poland was carried out in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the resolution of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of 30 July 1992, the Rules of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, and the Resolution of the Senate of the Republic of Poland of 23 November 1990. Rules of the Senate.
This is contrary to the provisions of the Rules of Procedure of the Sejm, because the bill was submitted to the Sejm on April 6, three readings took place on the same day and the bill was forwarded to the Senate. In the meantime, in accordance with the Rules of Order of the Sejm, I refer here to Art. 89 RS, the first reading of the draft amendments to the Code or the draft amendments to the provisions implementing the Code may not take place earlier than the fourteenth day after the draft form has been submitted to the Members of Parliament. Of course, the earlier article says that when the bill is put into effect, the Marshal of the Sejm can ultimately decide whether it is one of the bills referred to in the law. 1, i.e. it is a draft change to the code. It was clear, in my opinion, that the project submitted to the Sejm on April 6 was a project to amend the Code. The title of the law did not mention the word “code”, but it was known that it was an amendment to the Code. The electoral law is 100% regulated by the Electoral Act, so the Marshal could not say that this was not the Code. I understand that the intention was to perform all these readings in one day. Also the second reading, in accordance with art. 44 ut. 3 of the Rules of Procedure of the Sejm may not take place earlier than the seventh day after the delivery of the committee’s report to the deputies, unless the Sejm decides otherwise. I understand that the Sejm decided otherwise to hold the second reading on the same day, and later also the third
– said Hermeliński.
pn/Youtube: Sejm of the Republic of Poland
Source: wPolityce