"Government Watch": Broken promise

The governing Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) has effectively broken its promise of introducing direct elections for the position of mayor at the local government level. The bill on direct elections is going forward but the party has decided that should no candidate secure a majority of all the votes cast in the first round of voting, it will be the elected councillors who must select the mayor. This means that in a majority of urban local authorities it is the councillors and not the voters who will remain sovereign. The case in favor of electing mayors directly was very easy to make: It gives power to voters and removes it from party hacks. It avoids the unseemly spectacle of months of horse-trading in hung councils over who is to be mayor. It stops small minorities holding the mayor to ransom. It gives the mayor the chance to put forward a program and be judged fours years from now on how he has carried it out. These arguments were made by the SLD during the parliamentary elections. What made the SLD change its mind? Let's start with the official line on this. The ruling party is still committed to direct elections but realizes that the mayor must have a sound relationship with the council and that the voters do not want to be asked to go to the ballot box twice. The provision for a second round in the council chamber should no candidate have a mandate insures that neither the councillors nor the voters are disenfranchised.

The political reality is different. The SLD has always made it plain it preferred the first-past-the post system as it would avoid running the risk of losing in the second round of voting in big cities such as Warsaw. SLD analysts did their election simulations and it transpired that under the new electoral law adopted for the council elections (a form of PR favorable to large parties) they would have a majority in most local councils. Not particularly surprising then that they got cold feet and opted for a system of electing mayors that leaves the final say to the councillors. The SLD's fears were complimented by some parts of the opposition. High media profile was given to all experts arguing for a more measured introduction of direct elections. Most of them were connected with the small (in electoral terms) but still apparently influential Freedom Union (UW), which fears that direct elections could deprive it of the chance to hold the balance of power between left and right in some city councils. One of the "experts" wheeled out at the seminars held on the issue even claimed that direct elections could lead to greater corruption as there would be very little that could be done to check the power of the mayor. But the method of electing the mayor has no bearing on the matter. Anti-corruption campaigners would do better to start by strengthening the Regional Audit Offices (RIOs). They concentrate purely on the legality of local government accounts. I will never forget the experience of a very senior government civil servant illustrating to me how RIOs are not allowed to encroach on local autonomy: "Let's say that municipality X near Warsaw decides to build a ski lift. It is not the job of the auditor to question the economics behind that decision, but to check its legal propriety." No it wasn't April Fool's day. The guy was deadly serious. This kind of audit approach means that the corrupt local official is laughing.

One set of politicians that has nothing to laugh about over the direct election saga is the Civic Platform (PO). Direct elections were a central plank in its election program. This defeat is quite symptomatic for PO. Andrzej Olechowski's absence in Parliament has left them without a leader (he set up PO after coming second in the presidential elections but has refused to lead the party). It has struggled to be in opposition to the SLD because on issues such as reforming the labor market, cutting the state budget and joining the EU it agrees with the government. However, it has also failed to have any influence over the SLD not only on direct elections but also issues such as legislation on the electronic media or reform of the health service. It seems to be operating in the political equivalent of no-man's land. The parliamentary reality for the direct elections bill now is that either the SLD will find one of the smaller parties to push through its proposal for a second round of voting in the council chambers or the bill will not pass. That would suit the SLD just fine. Whatever happens voters may feel cheated of having the final say on who is to be their mayor and will have little incentive to turn out come election day.

Chris Mularczyk is a Warsaw-based consultant. He can be e-mailed at cmularczyk@wbj.pl