A comprehensive electoral reform bill currently in the Senate proposes restructuring voting rules, election bodies, and result mechanisms ahead of 2027 to professionalize administration and restore public trust. <\/p>\n
In July 2026, the Senate held its first reading of a draft bill amending the Electoral Code and the Act on Local Referendums under parliamentary print no. 2670. The proposed changes modify the Act of January 5, 2011 \u2013 the Electoral Code.<\/p>\n
The primary aim of these proposed amendments is to professionalize the electoral administration and rebuild public trust in the state, which was strained by irregularities during the 2025 presidential election and subsequent handling of high volumes of election protests.<\/p>\n
One of the key innovations is the change in how electoral commissioners are appointed. Under the draft, the role will be filled exclusively by active or retired judges under the age of 70, nominated by the president of the court of appeal after consulting the judicial college, and appointed by the National Electoral Commission (PKW).<\/p>\n
This eliminates the involvement of the minister responsible for internal affairs from the nomination process, with the number of commissioners ranging flexibly from two to six per voivodeship. Current commissioners will end their terms on April 4, 2028, with new ones starting the following day.<\/p>\n
Modifications also affect the composition of district and regional electoral commissions. Members can only be actively practicing advocates, legal advisors, or notaries, replacing the previous requirement for legal education.<\/p>\n
The chairman of the district commission will be the electoral commissioner ex officio. In special cases, such as Warsaw handling foreign voting, the commission composition may be expanded to 16 members.<\/p>\n
The draft reduces the maximum population of permanent voting precincts from the previous limit of 4,000 residents down to 3,000, though local conditions may permit exceptions capped strictly at 4,000.<\/p>\n
To streamline operations for larger voter turnouts, precincts with over 2,500 residents must appoint a maximum 13-member precinct electoral commission.<\/p>\n
Voters casting ballots abroad will be permitted to use a valid Polish ID card rather than exclusively a passport, while consuls gain access to the ID Card Registry for data verification.<\/p>\n
The maximum commission size abroad increases from 12 to 16 members, and the deadline for submitting result protocols is extended to 48 hours, or up to 72 hours in exceptional situations.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the PKW will annually announce the number of mandates per district in the Journal of Laws by December 31, replacing rigid statutory provisions, with the Supreme Administrative Court stepping in if the PKW remains inactive.<\/p>\n
To restore the civic character of trusted persons (m\u0119\u017cowie zaufania) and relieve chairpersons of bureaucracy, the draft eliminates their right to a per diem allowance following recommendations from the PKW.<\/p>\n
Proxies will now only be able to register commission members in areas where their committee has officially registered lists or candidates, preventing committees without candidates from influencing commission compositions.<\/p>\n
The law is scheduled to take effect 14 days after publication, though the new provisions will only apply to elections called after a six-month period following that date, pending the President’s signature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A comprehensive electoral reform bill currently in the Senate proposes restructuring voting rules, election bodies, and result mechanisms ahead of 2027 to professionalize administration and restore public trust. Upcoming Electoral Reform and Its Objectives In July 2026, the Senate held its first reading of a draft bill amending the Electoral Code and the Act on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16636\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}