Professor Andrzej Zoll on the National Electoral Commission: there are grounds to claim that it is not an independent body

On Wednesday National Electoral Commission did not take a decision on the committee's financial report PIS from the parliamentary elections and adjourned the session until August 29. Due to possible irregularities in campaign financing, PiS may lose up to 75 percent of its nearly PLN 26 million subsidy.

Professor Andrzej Zoll – chairman of the National Electoral Commission in 1991-1993 – admitted that he had reservations about the current composition of the National Electoral Commission.

– The current composition of the National Electoral Commission provides grounds for claiming that certain political influences may play a role here. The composition is partly chosen by political bodies, and this is a departure from the basic idea that the National Electoral Commission must be – like the courts – independent, and the members of the commission independent – said Zoll. – There are grounds for claiming that it is not an independent body – he added. According to the former head of the National Electoral Commission, another postponement of the decision on the PiS committee report may be “the implementation of certain influences and indications not to allow a given decision”. In Zoll's opinion, the composition of the National Electoral Commission should return to the judicial composition of the National Electoral Commission, but with the reservation that the courts cannot look like they do today. – If the National Electoral Commission were to include representatives of the courts in their current composition, in particular the Constitutional Tribunal, as well as part of the Supreme Court, it would be bad, or even worse than it is now – he said.

The amendment to the Electoral Code, which came into force in January 2018, changed the rules for appointing the National Electoral Commission. The National Electoral Commission consists of 7 members appointed by the Sejm and 2 judges: one from the Constitutional Tribunal and the Supreme Administrative Court. Previously, the National Electoral Commission consisted of 3 judges from the Constitutional Tribunal, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court, appointed by the presidents of these courts.

In March this year, the president Andrzej Duda appointed seven new members of the National Electoral Commission, who were nominated by the Sejm on 21 December. Two candidates for members of the National Electoral Commission were nominated by the PiS club, two by the KO club, and one each by the PSL-TD, Polska 2050-TD and the Left clubs.