To vote or not to vote?

Self-defense (SO) and Civic Platform (PO) are shaping up for a clash over local elections. SO says it wants to scrap direct voting for leaders of local government, whereas PO has prepared its own draft bill amending the voting system. PO wants to maintain direct voting and extend it to county presidents and voivodship marshals.

This week SO will present its draft bill. "It is hard to tolerate a situation when a president or mayor holds office while in prison," says the head of SO's team of experts, Kazimierz Zdunowski, in justifying his party's proposal.

Zdunowski claims that the present system, which requires a referendum to vote an imprisoned figure out of office, for example, is ineffective as turnout is usually too low for the results to be binding.

Grzegorz Dolniak, the secretary of PO's parliamentary club, says his party wants citizens to vote for respected members of local communities, and not for lists created by political parties. "[SO] does not have leaders with authority among people, so they count on party lists," he claims.