Senator Krzysztof Kwiatkowski said on Wednesday at a press conference in the Sejm that “the Senate Pact has filed an official complaint to the Supreme Court against the National Electoral Commission in connection with the guidelines of the National Electoral Commission regarding the rules of counting votes.” – We pay particular attention to the absurdity of the guidelines – he emphasized.
On Wednesday, at a press conference in the Sejm, independent senator Krzysztof Kwiatkowski and the Civic Coalition’s candidate for the Senate and former Ombudsman Adam Bondar announced that they had filed a complaint against the National Electoral Commission’s guidelines regarding the rules for counting votes by electoral commissions in the coming years. elections parliamentary. – We draw attention to the absurdity of the National Electoral Commission’s guidelines, which, for some reason, wants to require the district commissions in the country, which is less of a problem, but especially abroad, to provide a collective report on the counting of votes for the Sejm, the Senate and the referendum – said Kwiatkowski.
“The National Electoral Commission should make it clear that we first count votes in the elections to the Sejm and Senate”
According to politicians, the National Electoral Commission’s guidelines for district electoral commissions in the country and abroad, which are obliged to submit all protocols within 24 hours, are incorrect. They also added that if the OKW fails to provide the minutes of parliamentary and referendum votes within the prescribed deadline, the results in a given committee will be invalidated.
Adam Bodnar and Krzysztof Kwiatkowski PAP/Radek Pietruszka
– The National Electoral Commission should clearly state that first we count the votes in the elections to the Sejm and Senate, then we submit the minutes, and then we start counting the referendum votes – said Bodnar.
“There will be 417 commissions and this is far from enough”
Politicians pointed out on Wednesday that due to the National Electoral Commission’s guidelines, the votes of Polish citizens abroad, whose number in the upcoming elections may be very high, may be wasted. – We received information that 608,127 people, citizens of the Republic of Poland, registered in the elections abroad. This is an absolute record, Bodnar said.
Another demand presented by the former Ombudsman is to increase the number of electoral commissions. – Now we know that there will be 417 commissions and this is far from enough. There is a risk that some committees will have so many votes to count that they simply may not make it in time and some of these votes will be considered null and void, Bodnar said.
The National Electoral Commission assures that there should be no problems
At Tuesday’s meeting National Electoral Commission issued a position on public doubts and concerns regarding the possibility of determining the voting results in voting circuits abroad and transmitting them to the District Electoral Commission in Warsaw I within 24 hours.
“The National Electoral Commission informs that taking into account the number of voting circuits established abroad (nearly 100 more circuits) and the fact that most additional circuits were created in places with the largest concentrations of Poles, as well as taking into account the time needed to determine voting results in voting circuits abroad in 2019 in the elections to the Sejm and the Senate, if the district electoral commissions in the districts established abroad perform individual activities in the manner and sequence specified in the provisions of law and the guidelines of the National Electoral Commission, there will be no problems with determining the voting results and transmitting them within the statutory deadline. ” – stands in Tuesday’s position of the National Electoral Commission.
Main photo source: PAP/Radek Pietruszka