"Many corporations objected powerfully to the provisions of the Act," warned Parliamentary talker Urszula Nowogorska of PSL on 7 March 2023. Corporations protest? That's a good sign. It proves that the Citizens' run has been moving by the Institute of civilian Affairs since 2012 is starting to deliver results.
The fierce opposition of local corporations has sparked amendments to the local referendum bill proposed by Kukiz’15 and the Law on Laws. The first improvement aims to reduce the threshold of citizens' attendance on which the validity of the referendum depends. With thematic referendums, attendance is expected to decrease from 30% to 15%. On the another hand, a referendum to dismiss the city president, mayor or mayor would be crucial if the number of voters who took part in it would represent at least 3/5 of the votes cast in the elections for the appealed body (e.g. the president). presently it is 3/5 of all who participated in the elections. The second change envisages halving the number of citizens needed to initiate the referendum – from 10 to 5 percent for municipalities and powiats, from 5 to 2.5 percent for voivodships. The 3rd improvement extends up to six months (from 60 days) to collect signatures for a referendum request.
Direct or controlled democracy?
The bill's draft amendment provoked outrage of PO, PSL and SLD and the local government lobby. "Anti-citizens", "unnecessary" and "an attack on democracy", comments lobbyists from local interest groups.
I will remind here Article 4 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland: “The authority of the superior in the Republic of Poland belongs to the Nation. The Nation shall exercise authority by its representatives or directly.” present in Poland, we are dealing with “controlled democracy” alternatively than direct democracy. Prof. Marcin Wiszowaty wrote about this in our study Constitution for Citizens.
Marshal of the Sejm Elizabeth Witek / screen"Referential practice and detailed statistical data (also from the last 2014-2018 term) convinces that under Polish conditions the local referendum institution has limited use. The fundamental challenge is that only any of the votes made are considered valid.
In 2014-2018, only 11% of appeal referendums were valid. During the same period in the group of thematic referendums, concerning e.g. road construction, municipal investments, the liquidation of the municipal guard, 50% of votes were crucial votes.
The reason for specified statistic are the turnout thresholds, which are hard to exceed in specified voting. The existing rules besides make the local referendum, which is intended for citizens itself, neglect to fulfil this role. A group of citizens who do not have support for a large social organisation (e.g. association) or political organisation (e.g. party), especially in larger cities, is incapable to collect adequate signatures to compose a referendum," says Tomasz Zakrzewski in his study "Local referendum: time for reform".
Citizens decide
Local referendum is an institution that is intended to facilitate residents’ engagement in decision-making processes at the level of their tiny homelands. It is intended to encourage citizens to participate in participatory democracy. It is intended to aid solve current problems facing local governments.
There are a number of barriers in the existing local referendum bill that make this tool not for citizens today.
The changes proposed by Kukiz’15 and the Law on Local referendum are consistent with the spirit of the thought of "citizens decide" which we have been proposing for 13 years.
It is worth reminding here that in 2020 We handed over to the president of Poland Andrzej Duda the draft amendment of the local referendum bill.
11 years of fighting
On 9 March 2023, the Sejm passed the parliamentary bill on local referendums.
I remember talking about changes to the local referendum bill to over 100 1000 people gathered in the country. demonstration “Enough disregard of society” 14 September 2013 in Warsaw. Today, after eleven years of the "Citizens decide" campaign, we have reason to be satisfied. I thank all those who have helped in this decade with action, word and thought.
