Two independent actions – in the ultimate Court and in the prosecutor's office – concerning the calculation of votes from the fresh presidential election are increasingly heating up the atmosphere of the dispute over the mandate of Karol Nawrocki. Although both institutions conduct their proceedings in parallel, no of them have the power or the intention to change the authoritative result of the elections.
The National Prosecutor's Office confirms that it takes action only in cases where there is simply a reasonable suspicion of a crime. By now, 7 voting investigations have already been launched, and requests for the examination of election cards have been submitted to 1,772 committees with nearly 32,000 functioning nationwide. Additionally, on the basis of the analysis of Dr. Krzysztof Kontek from the Warsaw School of Economics, the focus was on 5,500 commissions, in which – according to the mathematical model – anomalies may occur.
However, even broad expertise and extended prosecutorial proceedings do not have the power to influence the final decision of the election.
The prosecution shall not be a body counting votes and determining the result of the elections. It is up to us to conduct proceedings erstwhile there is simply a reasonable suspicion of a crime. This does not gotta affect the final result of national elections,” says Prok. Przemysław Nowak, the spokesperson for the National Prosecutor's Office.
At the same time, electoral protests are considered in the ultimate Court – as many as 54,000 applications, many of which were created by automatic duplication of the same pattern prepared, among others, by Roman Giertych. These protests are initially grouped and subsequently analysed individually, although any of them are likely to be rejected for formal reasons specified as the deficiency of a circumstantial indication of the committee in which the irregularities would have occurred. The SN has already announced that it will adopt a resolution on the validity of elections at an open gathering on 1 July. So far, respective committees have been identified with errors in the counting of votes, although – crucially – no of these shortcomings translate into a national result.
What could be the consequence of the prosecution's actions? At the very least, to bring to justice the members of the committee who have committed irregularities which have emerged. Contrary to what any supporters of recalculation of votes on a nationwide scale expect, the prosecution's actions will not translate into a possible correction of the election consequence – we read on money.pl
Although the prosecution's actions will not change the final result of the election, they may have real repercussions for those on the election committees. The prosecution, examining the evidence collected, may charge, inter alia, with failure to fulfil its duties, incitement to falsification of electoral papers or breach of powers by committee members. specified proceedings may lead to criminal investigations, interrogations, evidence safety and, as a last resort, to prosecution. If the allegations are proved, the persons liable for the irregularities detected may be fined, prohibited from serving in future election committees, and in utmost cases sentenced to imprisonment.
It is worth noting that the prosecution's investigations could take respective months. Due to the request to collect electoral documentation from various regions of Poland, interviews of witnesses and experts and possible expert opinions, criminal proceedings in this substance may extend beyond the word of office of the electoral authorities. As a consequence, although these issues draw public attention and can influence political discourse, they will not be able to make structural changes in the electoral procedures in force in the upcoming elections. The prosecution's actions should so be seen primarily as part of the process of accounting for procedural errors alternatively than as a mechanics for correcting voting results.
However, the ultimate Court remains the eventual arbitrator of the issue of the validity of the elections, which will issue a binding resolution at its public sitting on 1 July. Even if many irregularities are confirmed by both institutions, their nature will only be incidental, without being translated into a result, which one more time highlights the division of competences between the prosecution and the electoral judiciary.
