Electoral system in the 2011-2019 Polish parliamentary election for Sejm
The 2011-2019 elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland were conducted using the electoral system set out in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland and the Electoral Code Act.
The electoral system (in its narrower sense) consists of the following elements:
- The structure of the electoral districts (their number, boundaries and the number of seats to be distributed in each district),
- The manner in which the election results are determined (this is determined by the electoral formula and the elements contained therein such as the electoral method or the statutory electoral thresholds),
- The method of voting (in other words, the voter's powers when voting - how many votes he or she has, whether he or she can accumulate them, etc.).
Structure of electoral districts
In the 2011-2019 elections to the Polish Sejm, the country's territory was divided into 41 multi-mandate electoral districts with different numbers of seats. A district could be a voivodeship or a part of a voivodeship. The district boundaries could not intersect the boundaries of poviats or cities with poviat rights.
The smallest constituency was District No. 29 (with the seat of the District Election Commission in Częstochowa), in which 7 MPs were elected, while the largest was District No. 19 (OKW Warsaw), in which 20 MPs were elected. The average number of seats in the districts was 11.22. The seats were divided in each constituency on the basis of the number of votes obtained by the lists of individual committees in the constituency.
The votes of Polish citizens voting outside Poland were counted in Ward 19 (OKW Warsaw).
The detailed list of districts with the number of seats is shown in the table.
Electoral formula
The 2001 elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland were conducted using a proportional representation formula employing the modified Sainte-Laguë electoral method with a first divisor of 1.4. Seats were divided separately in each of the 41 electoral districts.
The election used a statutory threshold relating to validly cast votes nationwide. In order to take part in the distribution of seats, the electoral lists of a given committee (in total) had to exceed the threshold of 5% (in the case of a political party committee and an electoral committee of voters) or 8% (a committee of a coalition of political parties). Electoral committees of voters affiliated to national minority organisations were entitled to an exemption from exceeding the threshold.
Method of voting
Each voter had one vote, which he or she cast for the electoral list of his or her choice submitted by the electoral committee in the district, together with an indication of the specific candidate on that list to whom he or she was giving his or her support. Open lists were therefore used at district level. Candidates on a given ward committee list took their seats in order of the number of votes obtained. If a seat became vacant, priority was given to the next candidate on the same list in order of the number of votes obtained.
Maciej Onasz, based on: Onasz Maciej, Inżynieria wyborcza w Polsce od roku 1989, Łódź 2017.
photo by: Łukasz Błasikiewicz
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