Społeczna kontrola wyborów w polskim prawie wyborczym
Social Control over Elections in Polish Electoral Law

Author(s): Artur Sadowski
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Civil Law
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: electoral observation; election social control; international election observer; person of trust; social observer
Summary/Abstract: The article presents how social control over elections is regulated in Polish electoral law. In the past 2 years mechanisms of observation have gone through some big changes which, as a result has given a lot of new instruments to act in that area. Most importantly, an institution of citizen observer was implemented to the Polish law system, and chapter 11a, which contains most of the rules connected to the election social control, was added to the Electoral Code. In Polish law system there are three main institutions with competences to observe the electoral process and watch if all procedures are followed. These are: an international election observer, a person of trust and a citizen election observer. Each of these institutions, in terms of election control has its own entitlements and limitations. Due to the fact that each of them serves similar purposes they may seem almost identical. However there are some very important differences. Most of these differences come from the nature of each function. It is obvious that external observers have fewer rights to intervene in the internal elections than the domestic ones. Regulations related to people of trust and citizen observers are set not only in the same act, but also in the same chapter, so their competences are very close to each other with really subtle differences. The author shows how people who hold mentioned positions can operate throughout the whole electoral process. What actions they can take and where the limits of their operations are. The article shows hows the mechanism of social election control function not only from the theoretical point of view, but also analyze the results of the work, done by people who serve three stipulated above roles do.

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