Proposed law to expand direct elections to cities, boroughs

As early as June of this year Polish citizens may be able to cast their votes for city mayors and "gmina" (borough) officials in direct elections, according to an act of parliament proposed by the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). Although initially the SLD had proposed that direct elections were to be introduced in towns with less than 20,000 inhabitants, they now intend to introduce the new policy in all of Poland's cities and boroughs. Witold Gintowt-Dziewaltowski, an SLD deputy, told Rzeczpospolita that the scope of elections will be increased to all boroughs as a result of requests for doing so that were sent to the SLD from regional officials and organizations. The Civic Platform (PO) has proposed its own competing draft of a regional elections law, which would not only increase the scope of elections but also the scope of elected officials' responsibilities. Both parties' deputies do not exclude the possibility of consolidating the two drafts and drawing up a common bill. The new bill is planned to go before parliament at the end of February. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, A4) M.T.K.