Local elections set for October 27, with changes to the powers of mayors

Prime Minister Leszek Miller yesterday signed a decree on the date of local elections, which will take place on October 27 with the second phase schedul ed for November 10 this year. The new mayors will have the responsibilities currently held by local authorities (gmina management), but their powers wil l not be strengthened in any way. In practice, this means they will be stron gly controlled by local councils and may get into serious conflicts with the m. The novelty is the fact the mayor will not be able to also act as a membe r of the local council. The planned local elections will also see changes li miting the sources of financing election committees. They will not be able t o collect money from anonymous sponsors and all the money has to go through bank accounts and be paid in by transfer, check or credit card. The deputies also decided several weeks ago that election committees will be able to spen d from zl. 750 to zl. 5,000 per candidate based on the size of the gmina. Ne xt week, the Sejm will begin a debate on curbing corruption, which includes official financial statements from candidates and their partners. (Rzeczposp olita, p. A3) M.M.