Building blocks of local government

The battle over the new election law has come to an end with the ruling coalition taking the upper hand. At a speed seldom seen in Poland's corridors of power, the coalition passed the new local self-government election law, which allows the formation of blocks of parties.

First, the coalition dealt with the Sejm's Committee for Self-government and Regional Policy, putting an additional 30 people on its roster and getting the desired majority. Then it dismissed the committee's chairman, Waldemar Pawlak from the Peasant's Party (PSL), and scrapped the requirement of presenting the bill to the Institution of Public Hearing. The coalition's voting machine did the rest in the Sejm and the Senate.

The process provoked outrage from the opposition parties, who chose not to vote on the law and watched the vote on monitors outside the chamber.

New rules

Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) leader Wojciech Olejniczak called the walk-out a signal that "there is no acceptance for PiS' reality." Civic Platform's (PO) Donald Tusk called the voting "a violation of self-government." However, Minister-without-portfolio Przemysław Gosiewski claimed that democracy needs these changes. "We need a long-lasting majority to make sure that a clear policy is carried out in local government," he said.

But experts do not agree. "This clearly is changing the rules during the game and creating conditions favorable for the ruling coalition," says Paweł Grzelak, a political scientist from the Institute of Political Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN).

The new law stipulates that election committees (such as parties) can form blocks and thus gain local-government offices even if they do not make the five-percent threshold. A block has to get 10 percent of the votes in a gmina or county and 15 percent in the voivodship elections. "This system promotes large, strong parties and particularly one party - Law and Justice," Grzelak said. PiS will form a block with coalition partners Self-defense (SO) and the League of Polish Families (LPR). The election results of all three will be included in the block's result. However, as the Senate amended, when it comes down to distributing the ballots, only those parties that made the five-percent threshold will be taken into account. "This could mean that if LPR doesn't make the threshold, the other two parties, especially PiS, will 'snatch' its votes," Grzelak explained.

Block party

The opposition already announced that it will form blocks of its own. "This is natural, they have to do it," Grzelak said. SLD will run in a coalition with other left parties, such as Social Democratic Party of Poland (SdPl), Demokraci.pl and Labor Union (UP). Civic Platform (PO) announced it will form blocks with local committees. The party is also considering forming a block with PSL.

As far as local committees go, the new law doesn't eliminate them because they can still enter local government if they make the five-percent threshold. However, local committees might be reluctant to form blocks with political parties as they often present themselves as non-political.

So what will the new law mean for Polish local government? As Grzelak explains, local self-government institutions have until now managed to remain more local than political. "The new law aims to make local self-government an element of mainstream politics," Grzelak concludes.

Michał Pakulniewicz