Electoral silence and referendum silence
We wrote about voter silence in this week's issue as part of a draft for the voter. It is intended to service citizens to reflect in peace on their electoral decisions. It will begin on 14 October at 00.00, end on 15 October at 9am. In the immediate period before elections and during elections, political agitation cannot be conducted in any form.
Under fines ranging from PLN 500 000 to PLN 1 million, it is prohibited in the public sphere, and thus besides on the Internet: giving speeches; organizing gatherings, parades and demonstrations; distributing election materials; convincing the vote for a given committee or candidate; presenting symbols associated with a committee or candidate; publishing the results of polls. However, it is not essential to delete previously published election content.
In accordance with the national referendum law, the referendum run begins on the day on which the resolution of the Sejm, the decision of the president of the Republic, or the decision of the Marshal of the Sejm to order the referendum, respectively. The run ends 24 hours before the day of the vote. After the referendum run has been completed until the vote is over, there must be no assembly, march or demonstration, no speeches, no leaflets, no referendum campaign. In another words, there is simply a voter silence, as in the case of elections. Elections and referendums are held at the same time, meaning that both election and referendum silence lasts from Saturday at 00:00 to Sunday at 15 October to 21:00.
As PKW emphasises:
Violations of these prohibitions may consequence in criminal sanctions and will so be subject to the evaluation of law enforcement authorities and courts. The State Electoral Commission so calls for refraining from any action that could be considered as carrying out electoral agitation and referendum run at a time erstwhile this is prohibited.
There is 1 “but”...
According to the advice of the PKW, no agitation for or against the referendum is allowed, e.g. to organize meetings, walks, speeches or hand out leaflets. This is in full compliance with Article 39 of the referendum Act.
However, there is an exception for power. Article 58 of the same Act states that state authorities, including the government and the president, may inform and explain the content of the referendum questions and answer questions from citizens. This means that power can quote and comment unrestrainedly on referendal questions in silence. As you can easy guess, it is not hard to have a "translation" which in fact will be a biased expression of opinion. This in turn can convince a voter who will not gain a wider situation context.
This is simply a large problem for the opposition due to the fact that it cannot lead a referendum campaign. The law related to it is unclear and susceptible to different interpretations. The Law and Justice Office hopes that PKW will not be able to do anything if the authorities pass their position on the referendum. TVP will not hesitate to advance the referendum and emphasise its importance.
Internet disturbs silence
There are many doubts about the silence of the election itself. Even the erstwhile Heads of the PCW are willing to quit this institution. For many European countries have already given up voting silence. It does not apply, for example, in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK or Slovakia.
Prof. Jarosław Flis from the Jagiellonian University points out that it is very easy in the net to celebrate election silence, and this in turn exposes Polesial government to ridiculousness.
This is anachronism dating back to a time erstwhile any thought that news about the organization might appear at the last minute, and all voters would follow them erstwhile they choose. present we already know that they request at least a fewer days to discuss with their friends any fresh message, so those that appear on Saturday do not affect the elections made on Sunday.
Here, too, there are many valid questions, specified as whether or not, if a user gives a "trap up" under election advertising, this can be considered a breach of election silence.
