On February 5, 2020, the Speaker of the Polish Sejm ordered the election of the President of the Republic for May 10, 2020, and on March 13, the Decree of the Minister of Health on the declaration of an epidemic emergency in the territory of the Republic of Poland was published.
Despite the worsening epidemic situation and tragic news from the countries most affected by the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, those in power sought to hold presidential elections on an unchanged date. Public emotions were in favour of the United Right and its presidential candidate Andrzej Duda, as confirmed by election polls in May 2020. The pandemic election campaign itself was of a different nature. Most of the candidates had to limit their meetings with voters, but not the incumbent President – Andrzej Duda, who not only had the public media at his disposal, but was able to campaign effectively thanks to his position. For example, paying visits – in Garwolin he visited a hospital, in Ciechanow a food bank, in Jedlicze he supervised the bottling of disinfectant liquid. He was also supported by the Prime Minister.
It was also a time of greater confidence in the government, which was a reflection of global trends. The uncertain future associated with the pandemic was also a reason for holding elections as soon as possible. That’s why those in power were looking for ways to hold elections at this time. To make this happen, they began to change the election law, and over time even acted unlawfully. The unlawful activities involved Prime Minister, some ministers, voivodes and mayors of some self-governments. There was the deliberate abuse of money, positions and power. Civil society, Supreme Audit Office, some prosecutors and courts straggled to bring consequences to the guilty ones.
The unlawful activities – mostly committed by the mayors of the self-governments – are discussed in the report Presidential elections in Poland 2020 – a case study in relation to the rule of law. This is a story of the abuse of power by many local mayors. Some of them did it under pressure from the state administration, some maybe to get political gains or to be loyal to their political patrons, some may be victims of the situation created by the ruling majority. In any case, the breach of the law is undebatable. The circumstances in which the mayors took decisions may only soften the punishment. However, the situation took place during the rule of law crisis. Therefore the justice system was not working properly. The report discuss how the courts stood on guard of the rule of law.
As a response for the lawful activity of the civil society (the Citizens Network Watchdog Poland) and several courts, on October 20, 2022, the group of Law and Justice parliamentarians*, prepared a bill aimed at guaranteeing the impunity of those who breached the law.
The bill contains only five articles – bill came to light.
- Article 1 The law determines the legality of the actions of the mayor to provide (…) the postal operator (…) with a voter register in connection with the general election for President of the Republic of Poland ordered in 2020.
- Article 2 No crime was committed by the mayor, who (…) provided the designated operator with a register of voters in connection with the general election for the President of the Republic of Poland ordered in 2020.
- Article 3 Proceedings for the offense of taking the actions referred to in Article 1, initiated and not concluded by a final judgment before the date of entry into force of this law, shall be discontinued.
- Article 4 A conviction for the offense of taking the actions referred to in Article 1 shall be erased by operation of law.
- Article 5 The law enters into force on the day following the date of promulgation.
The bill has been referred to the first reading. It was to be considered at the session of the Sejm on November 3-4, 2022. However, it disappeared from the agenda. It is difficult to predict what its fate will be. The Sejm has referred the law to consultations with local government organisations [the translation of the opinions of the Association of Polish Cities and the Union of Rural Municipalities of the Republic of Poland ]. It appears that the United Right wanted to share responsibility for this bill with the associations of local governments, which will have to choose whether the interests of their members or the rule of law are more important in the law-making process.
[UPDATE: the bill was withdrawn on November 28th, 2022. The new version was submitted on November 29th, 2022 and enacted by the Sejm on December 1st, 2022. The change referred to abandonment of prosecution for law breaches instead of naming them legal.
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*Authors of the bill – representative Anna Milczanowska. Sighed up: Waldemar Andzel; Zbigniew Babalski; Piotr Babinetz; Barbara Bartuś; Joanna Borowiak; Lidia Burzyńska; Krzysztof Czarnecki; Witold Czarnecki; Przemysław Drabek; Elżbieta Duda; Jan Duda; Barbara Dziuk; Radosław Fogiel; Adam Gawęda; Czesław Hoc; Fryderyk Kapinos; Krzysztof Lipiec; Grzegorz Lorek; Ewa Malik; Anna Paluch; Teresa Pamuła; Monika Pawłowska; Violetta Porowska; Marcin Porzucek; Adam Śnieżek; Jacek Świat; Włodzimierz Tomaszewski; Jan Warzecha; Tomasz Zieliński.
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