Planned changes to voting law are unconstitutional: opinion
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
23.01.2017 12:15
Some of the proposed changes to Poland’s electoral law may be unconstitutional, the head of the Polish People’s Party (PSL) Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz has said.
A woman casts her vote in 2015 elections. Photo: Flickr.com/Nowy Dziennik.
Kosiniak-Kamysz told Radio Poland that plans to cap mayoral time in office to two terms would limit voting rights.
The suggested changes, were put forward by the leader of Poland’s governing Law and Justice (PiS) party Jarosław Kaczyński, who said 2014 local government elections were “falsified”, also include see-through ballot boxes and the installation of CCTV cameras at polling places.
Kaczyński said the reform would “hinder or disable the creation of various kinds of pathological arrangements at the local-government level”.
The PiS leader said his party has taken into account the fact that Poland’s constitutional court could question the changes on the grounds of the law being retroactive.
“We will try to convince the Consitutional Tribunal,” he said.
“I do not believe we are breaking the rules which apply to laws not working retroactively," he said, "but it is controversial and the Constitutional Tribunal will make the final decision.”
Kaczyński, a trained lawyer, said that the rules against retroactive legislation apply to laws which limit personal rights, adding that voting laws are not personal rights.
Kaczyński has said he wants the new electoral laws introduced as soon as possible, ahead of local government elections due in late 2018. (vb/rg)
Source: IAR