Red Tape Hot Box on the referendum

As you might recall, voting in Poland was a dreadful business for those who had stałe zameldowanie (registered residence) but changed their whereabouts. In such a case they were not allowed to vote unless they either went back to the place where they had been officially registered or changed the stałe zameldowanie to the place where they currently live. Moreover, if you didn't have this registered residence you were unable to receive a dowód osobisty (ID card) without which you were unable to vote.

Well, faced with the real prospect of the referendum being invalid due to low turnout, the authorities did everything in their powers to ensure that every single Polish citizen could cast his or her vote - whatever their circumstances. We owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Kałuziński of Kałużinski & Partners Executive Search, whose digging at the Election Committee led to the great discovery that Poles without stałe zameldowanie in Poland could still vote. All they had to do was to turn up at any polling station with their Polish passport and proof of foreign address (U.K. driving license, for example). Our reader and his wife did this - at separate polling stations, and without any great problems. They had their passports stamped to prevent them from voting twice, their UK address noted down, and they got their ballot papers.

Step back for a second to observe how beautifully simple the whole process was - no need to pre-register, no need to bring sheaves of papers signed by the notary and translated by a tłumacz przysięgły (chartered translator)...just a passport and a driving license.

This gives them and me great optimism, as it shows that when the Polish state has an overwhelming need, it can lay its bureaucratic habits to rest. Let us sincerely hope to see more such enlightened decisions to scrap stupid and unnecessary red tape in the future.