At its meeting on Monday, the National Electoral Commission will consider the decision of the Extraordinary Control Chamber of the Supreme Court, which accepted the appeal of PiS on the rejection of the report of the electoral committee of this party by the National Electoral Commission.
On December 11, the Extraordinary Control and Public Relations Chamber of the Supreme Court, which is not recognized by some European lawyers and courts, upheld PiS's appeal against the decision of the National Electoral Commission to reject the report of the party's electoral committee for the 2023 elections. The spokesman of the Supreme Court, Alexander Stepkovski, emphasized that in this situation, the National Electoral Commission is obliged to accept the report of the electoral committee.
A day later, the head of the National Electoral Commission, Sylvester Marciniak, announced that the documents of the Supreme Court were sent to the National Electoral Commission, and the meeting was scheduled for Monday at 12:00.
Ryszard Kalisz, one of the members of the Commission, expressed doubts whether the National Election Commission should deal with the Supreme Court's ruling on Monday. As he justified, one of the members of the National Election Commission will not participate in the meeting. But he did not want to reveal who it is. He only reported that this person was appointed to the National Election Commission by “one of the democratic parties”.
Debate on the Chamber of Emergency Control and Public Works
According to the Electoral Code, after receiving a complaint against Law and Justice by this Supreme Court Board, the Election Commission is obliged to change the decision and accept the financial report of Law and Justice. But perhaps a more controversial issue is that the Supreme Court's Extraordinary Oversight and Public Relations Chamber includes judges appointed by the politicized National Council of the Judiciary.
The status of the Supreme Court's Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber, which has jurisdiction over appeals against the decisions of the National Electoral Commission, has been questioned by the current government, European tribunals and some members of the National Electoral Commission.
In the second half of November, the National Electoral Commission adopted a position that persons appointed by the National Council of the Judiciary after 2017 should not participate in cases of the Supreme Court and other courts in cases related to the National Electoral Commission. , in which such persons make judgments, the Commission requires their removal. However, this position was not accepted unanimously.
On August 29 of this year, the National Election Commission rejected the financial report of the PiS election committee for the 2023 parliamentary elections. PiS appealed the decision of the National Election Commission to the Supreme Court. According to the regulation, the refusal of the annual report can lead to the loss of the right to budget subsidies for a period of three years. In total, after the finalization of both NEC decisions, Law and Justice could lose PLN 100 million.
Main photo credit: Leszek Szymanski/PAP
