The commission of inquiry into envelope elections presents its final findings

Magdalena Filiks, who replaced the previous head of the committee, MP Dariusz Joński (KO) as the chairman of the investigative committee for postal elections, announced that at Thursday's meeting there would be no vote on submitting applications to the prosecutor's office, but only on their preparation.

On Wednesday, former chairman Dariusz Joński announced that the committee would vote on Thursday on submitting applications to the prosecutor's office regarding the possibility of a crime being committed by PiS politicians who participated in preparing the presidential elections in 2020. Joński spoke about the indictment against PiS politicians and those who served as prime minister, speaker of the Sejm, ministers, deputy ministers, and the party's chairman. Jaroslaw Kaczynski“.

Read also: Joński: there will be notifications to the prosecutor's office about Kaczyński and Morawiecki. He points to two articles

As Filiks informed, the committee will also vote on drawing up conclusions to the prosecutor's office regarding the possibility of a crime being committed by persons responsible for preparing the elections. PiS MPs they said that they were seeing the report for the first time, so they requested that today they not even vote on preparing these motions. However, Filiks said that precisely because the report will be presented for the first time today, there will be no vote on the committee submitting notifications to the prosecutor's office, but only on their preparation.

At the beginning of the session, Filiks announced that she wanted to “present the draft position of the committee”. – I would like to point out that these are basically its most important conclusions, because the draft itself is 400 pages long. (…) I would like to limit oral statements only to conclusions and the most important issues – announced the chairwoman of the committee. She added that “after the presentation of the draft report on the committee's activities, each of your MPs and advisors will receive the draft position of the committee today” in its entirety.

– The commission was established because, despite the launch of the state apparatus, organizations, associations and private individuals in 2020, the issue of postal elections remained unresolved for a very long time. At the same time, the commission of inquiry attempted to rebuild citizens' trust in the state in the face of the method of action adopted by the previous government, which was intended to protect politicians and people from the circles of power at the expense of reaching the truth and a sense of social justice – she said.

The draft report, which was read by Filiks, stated that “public authorities during the exercise of power by the government coalition consisting of the Law and Justice party and the Sovereign Poland party, previously Solidarna Polska, as well as the Agreement of Jarosław Gowin, aimed to conduct the elections of the President of the Republic of Poland in a way that could limit or even deprive several million citizens of the active right to vote”.

– The ruling majority tried to hold elections that were certainly not universal, equal and secret elections. – she added.

The head of the commission, presenting her part of the project, also emphasized that the rhetoric presented by some witnesses that the elections on May 10, 2020 were not held by the opposition, and in particular by the then Deputy Speaker of the Sejm Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, was undermined by the chairman of the National Electoral Commission Sylwester Marciniak himself. – He directly testified before the commission that Ms. Kidawa-Błońska was a candidate and that is all that matters. Therefore, she had no influence on the issue of holding or not holding these elections – emphasized the head of the commission.

– Based on the evidence collected, the commission concludes that it was the internal opposition in the (then – ed.) government coalition in the form of some Porozumienie politicians Jaroslaw Gowin stopped the postal elections – emphasized Filiks.

She stated that “the work of the commission revealed that the then government coalition was unable to develop a common position until 6 May 2020, and at the same time for four years it was misleading public opinion, trying to shift all responsibility for the failed elections onto the then parliamentary opposition.”

She also noted that according to the commission, the reasons why the postal elections did not take place were: legislative and organizational unpreparedness, and above all, the lack of agreement within the government itself. – The fact is that the government coalition did not have time to prepare and conduct, in accordance with the law, the elections in the formula it had invented and should today be held responsible for this – emphasized the head of the commission.

As she said, the then Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki “instead of usurping the powers of electoral bodies to issue orders related to conducting the elections of the President of the Republic of Poland, he should have used the solutions adopted in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland back in 1997”. – All the more so because, in the opinion of the commission, since the adoption of the constitution, there has been no clearer and more obvious factual and legal situation justifying the introduction of a state of emergency in our country – added Filiks.

Magdalena Filiks (KO) also presented part of the report's conclusion concerning Jarosław Kaczyński. – Based on the analysis of witness testimonies, as well as other evidence, in particular the interview given by Jarosław Kaczyński in May 2021 to the weekly “W sieci”, in the opinion of the commission it follows that the decision to hold the presidential elections in Poland by correspondence was made by the chairman of Law and Justice, Jarosław Kaczyński – said the head of the commission.

– The evidence collected indicates that Jarosław Kaczyński, being an MP of the ruling party, without any competenceswhich the Constitution of the Republic of Poland grants to the Speaker of the Sejm or the Prime Minister as a member of parliament, a public official, he exceeded his authority, using his position as the president of Law and Justice. His actions did not serve to protect the public interest, but were detrimental to it – she continued.

As Filips said, “the only motivation for Jarosław Kaczyński's actions was the desire to hold elections at all costs and maintain Andrzej Duda's presidency”.

– The clear motivation behind Jarosław Kaczyński's actions is demonstrated by his irrational, reckless attitude towards extraordinary circumstances, which endangers Polish citizens.which undoubtedly was the epidemic situation in Poland at that time. The proof that it was Jarosław Kaczyński who ultimately decided to hold the elections of the President of the Republic of Poland in the form of postal voting is also the fact that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki played a marginal role in the political decision-making process to hold these elections – said Filiks.

She added that according to the commission's findings, “Jarosław Kaczyński made both a political decision to hold the elections of the President of the Republic of Poland scheduled for May 10, 2020, and a decision that these elections will not take place”.

Commission member Anita Kucharska-Dziedzic delivered conclusions regarding the testimonies of former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and former head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister Michał Dworczyk. – Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, issuing a decision of April 16, 2020 he declared himself to be the body authorized to issue orders related to the process of conducting elections for the President of the Republic of Poland, although no provisions of the law generally in force on the date of issuing these decisions granted the Prime Minister or the Chancellery of the Prime Minister competences in this respect – said Kucharska-Dziedzic.

As she added, “a lot of information indicates that the authorities abused these provisions during the COVID-19 epidemic and used them for purposes other than those established”. – For reasons justified in detail in the committee's assessment, (former – editor's note) Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, when issuing the decision of April 16, 2020, did not act within the law and abused his powers, and decisions issued by himwhich was confirmed by the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw (…) and The Supreme Administrative Court (…) are not in accordance with the provisions of generally applicable law – read the committee member.

As Kucharska-Dziedzic said, “During the hearing before the committee, Morawiecki acknowledged his responsibility for issuing the decision of April 16, 2020 and the consequences resulting from it, and consequently, also for the unjustified expenditure of public funds, as well as for ordering the preparation and holding of presidential elections that violated the basic principles of democracy, exposing the state to destabilization and ridicule also in the international arena.”

The MP moved to the conclusions regarding Michał Dworczykformer head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. – Everything indicates that the head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Michał Dworczyk, misled the Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, by assuring him on April 16, 2020, before signing the decision, that the decisions were in accordance with the law.”

– However, this does not justify the negligence of the Prime Minister, who, having previously known about the negative legal opinions, should have independently obtained information from the people who issued such negative opinions and made sure whether their position had actually changed, as assured by the head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Michał Dworczyk – she added.

– In the opinion of the committee, both Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and the head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister Michał Dworczyk groundlessly ignored the reservations and warnings resulting from the analyses of the Department of Legal Affairs, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister and the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Poland before the Prime Minister issued decisions ordering specific entities to take action in connection with universal and mandatory postal elections – continued Kucharska-Dziedzic.

The commission of inquiry into postal elections, which has already completed the hearing of witnesses, examined the legality, correctness and expediency of the actions taken to prepare and conduct the elections of the President of the Republic of Poland in 2020 in the form of postal voting. The commission is now preparing a final report.

From December 19, 2023 to May 24, the commission held 25 meetings, during which it heard 28 witnesses. In addition Jacek Sasin, Mariusz KamińskiMateusz Morawiecki, Jarosław Kaczyński and Elżbieta Witek were also testified before the committee by, among others, former Deputy Minister of State Assets Artur Soboń, former Minister of Education and Science Jarosław Gowin, former head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister Michał Dworczyk, MP Paweł Kukiz, MEP Adam Bielan, former Minister of Health Łukasz Szumowski.

Elections The presidential elections, in accordance with the order of the Marshal of the Sejm from February 2020, were to be held on May 10, 2020, in the form of postal voting due to the COVID-19 epidemic. However, on May 7 National Electoral Commission informed that because the applicable legal regulation deprived the National Electoral Commission of the instruments necessary to perform its duties, the vote on May 10, 2020 could not take place. Ultimately, the elections took place on June 28 (first round), and voting took place in polling stations.