Local elections in Poland, EU citizens should register to vote

I hope all EU citizens here in Warsaw with a "Staly Meldunek" (just as me) have registered to vote in the local elections, and will go to vote. The PIS morons will loose anyway, big time. But it would be great if Hannah would win in the first round. Just to send a message to the duck. And to get rid of the cross loonies. They are still polluting the pavement of Krakowskie P. with their ridiculous candles.

You are going to vote for Gronkiewicz-Waltz ? Why do you find her better for this office than other candidates ?


Who ?

i'll be putting my mark next to the first person who isn't Rafał Dutkiewicz. although the whole world and his dog know that he'll win anyway.

JKM...hmm, live in Wroclaw...drats...

I've registered to vote too.

PiS are hardly even bothering to campaign in Poznan.

Merged: Local Poland elections: local issues or your vote reflect your view on a national level?

In local elections, more often than not, voters will give their opinion on national issues rather than local matters. In my view, unfortunately, voters don't distinguish between what a certain party stands for in national matters and what they stand for in local/city/village issues. One even sees a party being almost annihalated in local elections only because the party on a national level has become unpopular due to its national policies. In the latest opinion poll, pollsters expect a severe thrashing of PiS in the upcoming local elections, probably (but that is my explanation) because voters have had enough of what they stand for (I try to phrase this as neutral as possible).

What are your views on this? Do you vote differently in local elections opposed to national elections? Does an unpopular leader on a national level have influence on a local level? Should it?

My view: it shouldn't have influence on voters. In our last national elections I voted on a different party than in our last local elections. The party I voted for nationally had some points in their local agenda I couldn't agree with, and vice versa.

I'm eager to hear your views on this.

Quite a few presidents of big cities are independents. Wroclaw, Poznan, Lodz, Katowice...

Also, quite a few mayors of smaller [below 50.000 inhabitants]to medium towns [if a town has more inhabitants than that number, its mayor is called a president] are independent, too. A satelite town of Warsaw where I live has three candidates running for presidentship, one is independent, another is from PO, the third one is from PiS.

Lots of interesting campaigning going on. Regarding the original question, it seems like party affiliation is largely ignored in local elections.

I don't know any people who are in my local authorities (e.g. in power now) and neither do I know those new challengers - so I vote according to my party affiliation but I guess it only counts for 'powiat' level and higher - on the lower level there are no PiS affiliated candidates AFAIK - btw I believe there are too many levels of local authorities here in Poland - god knows what we need those powiats for

The important distinction is that powiat is a governmental structure, whereas gmina and województwo are self-governmental or local governmental ones. Hence starosta - head of the powiat is never elected in a local election, but the person is nominated by the central government or wojewoda [I don't remember precisely]. The prerogatives of powiat are also different from those of the gminas [powiat is a bunch of gminas]. On the województwo level, there exist a kind of a "double" administration with separate prerogatives however, with wojewoda, a not-elected person representing the central government within the województwo, and sejmik województwa, an elected body with its head "marszałek województwa" being elected by the members of sejmik rather than by universal voivodship suffrage.

Merged thread:
Local elections in Poland. Who is going to vote Sunday and why?

Sunday local elections. Second time I can vote as a EU citizen here in Warsaw. I am definitely going. Hannah does not need my vote but nevertheless she will get it :)

It is good to exercise your rights as a EU citizen in another EU country. It would be good though if the PIS morons would be defeated in the first round.

I think the current coalition was doing a good job here in Warsaw.

Some EU citizens, because they are morons !

I am going too.
Not that I love PO so much. I am going to vote them in fear of PiS getting the power again. That would be even more disastrous than their last time in 2007.

IMHO: PiS must be stopped.

Just for the record: you are a foreigner who has no concept of this country's politics, but you are politicaly correct; you have mainstream acceptable views; you are almost a Polish yuppie, and regreatably you can vote.

Your nick Sobieski, are you a Polish nationalist now or do you just like nationalists?


I hope you don't go postal, Pawian. Get some help.

PiS are falling apart - when even some of the more questionable members are starting to leave, you know their time is up. I can't help but think that Kaczynski has been completely manipulated though - who on earth allowed him to have an election "spot" with a coffin?!


No concept? Is that the same concept as Jarek's "the people made a mistake" nonsense?

There's really not much to understand - the general population doesn't like PiS and they stand to lose in 27 out of the 28 biggest cities. Heck, when they're projected to lose Kielce, what the hell is wrong with them?

Thankfully, I can vote too. And vote I will :)

1jola, can you tell me what's good about PiS? Polonia seems to like them, not sure why- but I don't. The duck only creates hatred and confusion amongst people. He's gotta go, really.

WTH! Sobieski?! How dare you vote in my country if you are'nt polish citizen? Keep your filthy hands on Politics in your own country! I dont care who you love or dont like in my country!

He lives in "your" country

What has crawled up your ass? That is how democracy works, I would much rather him having the vote than you.

Let's just vote everyone. Glad to have those of you who are expatriates to vote here. Cast your vote and enjoy in the manner you prefer:-)

Hmmm, so as an expat, here are my choices:

PO: we don't do anything that promise
PiS: we say we do everything that we promise, but don't actually do anything we promise

It's tough, thank god for independents....

Well that is the slanted point of view of the media. The truth is somewhere in between-if you want to track the activity of PO, then I would suggest you look at the Sejm website and look at all the laws that were approved.

And although I like the strong presence of independents in the election, the fact is that most of the big fish in Katowice, Poznan, Krakow, and Wroclaw-will still be largely dependent on the goodwill of the councilors and Sejmiks, which will be mostly party controlled, to get anything done.

So if an independent tells you that he is going to o this that and etc- you should be very skeptical, because the likelihood is that he or she is simply unlikely to have the power. Therefore a party affiliated promise is far more credible.

If the PO Carries out its policy and reduces the size of parliament (they will have to have the power first) then they will well and truly win my respect as a party that is not just in it for itself. The Conservatives are on their way of doing just that in the UK-and guess which party stands in opposition? Who else but the party of professional politicians- LABOUR.

I am not a Polish citizen, but as EU resident with a permanent meldunek, I have the same right to vote as you.

By the way U read some time ago that PIS wanted Kamiński head of the PIS club in Warsaw. Imagine that guy getting mayor. Eavesdropping on all PIS opponents and thew IPN making overtime in blackmailing the entire opposition.

I would also urge those who take a real interest, and might have not been born in the country and think they have something to contribute to the community to give it a go.

Like the gentlemen here

Politics is a dirty game ...

But let either the Civic Platform ... or the Left and Democrats and anyone going for an approach that is more harmonious ... win.

I dont like politics though ...

P.S. PO is on a good situation ... =D ...

Sorry, you signed up for the EU, and now we're going to exercise our EU rights :)

The fact that the American Polonia get to vote is far worse - at least we live, work and pay taxes here.

That's neat, here're some of the candidates:

hasanciftci.pl

denbult.pl/pd/Home

I'll vote, but for Sląsk autonomy!
All you Warsaw so-and-sos living the highlife on the money our coalminers make for ye
:P

PO has won everything, they made 112 billion debt this year alone, sell strategic sectors of the economy for pennies, ruin the the whole country but PiS must be stopped, I really start believing that Poles are a nation of idiots.