Jeśli zgadzasz się z przedstawionymi niżej argumentami (polska wersja na: www.ZjednoczeniDlaTarnowa.pl ) wydrukuj
pismo, podpisz i wyślij do Trybunału Sprawiedliwości w Luksemburgu,
OBWE w Wiedniu i Parlamentu Europejskiego. Przedstawiciele
pokrzywdzonych komitetów wyborczych złożyli już polskojęzyczną wersję
protestu do Sądu Najwyższego RP.
Warsaw – Czosnów, 21 September 2019
Court of Justice of the European Union
Rue du Fort Niedergrunewald , L - 2925 Luxembourg
Thomas Greminger - Secretary General
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Wallnerstrasse 6 , 1010 Vienna, Austria
The European Parliament
60 rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat 60, B-1047 – Brussels
Dear Sirs,
Acting in public interest, out of concern for the good of democracy in
Poland and Europe, as national representatives or regional coordinators
of election committees registered by the National Election Commission,
candidates for the Sejm (lower chamber of the Polish parliament) or
Senate nominated by such election committees, or representatives of
social organisations, pursuant to Art. 101 of the Constitution of the
Republic of Poland, Art. 6 of the Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and Art. 3 of Protocol 1 thereto, we
file our protest against the validity of the elections to the Sejm and
Senate of the Republic of Poland to be held on 13 October 2019 and
request that the Court of Justice of the European Union state its
position regarding this matter and an urgent intervention by the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the European
Parliament and the Commissioner for Human Rights.
Under Art. 63 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (Dz. U. of
1997 No. 78, item 483, as amended) and the relevant provisions of the
Code of Administrative Procedure (Dz. U. of 1960 No. 30, item 168, as
amended), we request that the elections to the Sejm and Senate scheduled
for 13 October 2019 under the decision of the President of the Republic
of Poland ordering elections to the Sejm and Senate of the Republic of
Poland of 6 August 2019 (Dz. U. of 2019, item 1506) be annulled.
Grounds:
1. The adoption by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of the Act of
31 July 2019 Amending the Election Code and the National Referendum Act
(Dz. U. of 2019, item 1504), which introduced significant amendments to
the Election Code within less than six months before the parliamentary
elections, is contrary to two earlier judgments of the Constitutional
Tribunal, which specify that significant amendments to the Election Code
may be made no later than half a year before the first election
activity. Because the amendments to the Election Code made on 31 July
2019 are significant (they relate to, inter alia, the manner of
resolution of electoral disputes by the Supreme Court, which adjudicates
in a panel of the entire competent chamber), in the light of the
standards set by the Constitutional Tribunal such amendments could not
have been made at that time (see e.g. opinions of constitutionalists –
Ryszard Piotrowski, PhD, or professor Marek Chmaj).
2. The appointment of the Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs
Chamber of the Supreme Court, which ascertains the validity of elections
and reviews complaints and electoral disputes, was deficient and it is
not a European court. In connection with the unlawfulness of the
chamber, in May 2019 seven judges of the Supreme Court filed an inquiry
with the Court of Justice of the European Union to determine whether the
chamber was a component of the European judiciary, see:
http://www.sn.pl/aktualnosci/SitePages/komunikaty_o_sprawach.aspx?ItemSID=278-b6b3e804-2752-4c7d-bcb4-7586782a1315&ListName=Komunikaty_o_sprawach
If the Court of Justice of the European Union confirms the unlawfulness
of the activities of the Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs
Chamber, its decisions will all the more so be unlawful, including
decisions concerning the validity of elections and electoral disputes.
See decision of the Supreme Court, file Ref. No. III CZP 25/19 of 21 May
2019.
3. In connection with item 2, i.e. the unlawfulness of the
Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber of the Supreme Court,
for which grounds were provided in the aforementioned Supreme Court’s
decision of 21 May 2019, the right under Art. 13 of the European
Convention on Human Rights was violated, i.e. the right to an effective
remedy.
4. The adopted electoral calendar, in particular the short, two-week
period (during holidays) – resulting from the decision of the President
of the Republic of Poland and the Election Code – for collection of more
than 5,000 signatures of support in an electoral area, which are
required for registration of and compiling electoral lists,
discriminated smaller citizens' committees, which do not receive
subsidies amounting to many millions of złoty, as large parties do, thus
in practice the committees were physically unable to collect such large
number of signatures in such a short period. This violates, inter alia,
Art. 3 of Protocol 1 to the Convention for the Protection of Human
Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, thus violating Art. 9 and 32 of the
Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
5. In some cases, as much as 30-50% (!) of signatures of support were
questioned by election commissions due to, among other things, adoption
by the National Election Commission of an incorrect definition of
residence address provided by a voter signing the support list for a
given committee, which was inconsistent with the definition set out in
Art. 25 of the Civil Code (Dz. U. of 1964 No. 16, item 93, as amended).
The Election Code refers to a residence address which is to be provided
by the person signing the support list, while election commissions
approved only those addresses which were consistent with the entry in
the electoral register. Out of nearly 7,000 support signatures placed
under the list of the coalition election committee Koalicja Bezpartyjni i
Samorządowcy of Warsaw, the election commission deemed invalid more
than 2,000 signatures, as a result of which the list was not registered!
In Silesia, an independent candidate to the Senate saw half (!) of his
support signatures deemed invalid. See the complaint of the coalition
election committee Koalicja Bezpartyjni i Samorządowcy filed to the
Supreme Court on 11 September 2019.
6. A violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (e.g.
Art. 32 thereof), the Election Code and the Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (e.g. Art. 14
thereof), consisted in unequal treatment of election committees
(discrimination of citizens’ committees) and deeming signatures invalid
for insignificant reasons (some of the them were deemed invalid due to
illegible personal details, although the personal identification number
PESEL was correct and the details of the person who placed their
signature could have been verified). See complaints of the coalition
election committee Koalicja Bezpartyjni i Samorządowcy filed to the
Supreme Court on 11 September 2019.
7. Although the Election Code guarantees the presence of a
representative of an election committee during the verification of
signatures (also in the case of a complaint filed to the National
Election Commission or the Supreme Court), the representative of the
coalition election committee Koalicja Bezpartyjni i Samorządowcy of
Bydgoszcz (from Inowroclaw) was notified by the Supreme Court that the
signatures would be verified in 10 minutes (the distance from Inowroclaw
to the registered office of the Supreme Court in Warsaw is more than
260 km!). This evidently violated the provisions of the Election Code
referred to above, see: regional representative of the committee –
Lukasz Pajak, e-mail: lukaszpajak01@gmail.com , phone: (+48) 609 712
508.
8. The Election Code and instructions of the National Election
Commission regarding the manner of compiling lists of support for
election committees breach the principles set out in the GDPR, i.e. the
EU Regulation of 27 April 2016 (which Poland adopted), containing
provisions regarding the protection of natural persons with regard to
the processing of personal data, in particular they breach the principle
of protection of personal data, as defined in Art. 4.12, Art. 5.1.f,
Art. 5.2, Art. 7.1. Art. 7.2, Art. 13.1 and Art. 13.2 of the Regulation,
by imposing a requirement to collect all basic personal details of
citizens, i.e. first name and surname, residence address, the personal
identification number PESEL and a signature, on lists of support for a
given committee, without including on the lists a relevant notice of
collection and processing of such information, and by failure to provide
a statutory requirement to inform the persons providing their data and
signing a support list about the manner of collection and storage of
their data, as specified in Art. 13 of the Regulation. This also
violates Art. 91 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
9. Neither the Election Code, nor the instructions of the National
Election Commission give the election committees the opportunity to
verify the data collected in the support lists, which in practice
enables “planting” incorrect signatures on the committee, exposing the
committee to claims of unlawful conduct. This violates Art. 3 of
Protocol 1 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms.
The undersigned representatives of election committees registered by the
National Election Commission, candidates and former candidates in
Polish parliamentary elections to be held on 13 October 2019 as well as
representatives of citizens’ associations authorise Mr Wojciech Papis to
file this protest and request to the Supreme Court, the Court of
Justice of the European Union, the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe, the Commissioner for Human Rights and other
institutions and persons, to exchange relevant correspondence etc.
Contact details:
Wojciech Papis – The Oburzeni Association (Polish: Stowarzyszenie Oburzeni)
ul. Środkowa 8/ 24, 03-430 Warsaw
tel.: +48 514 268 064, e-mail: w.papis@wp.pl
(Signatories - first name and surname, residence address, election committee/organisation in the Polish version)