Elections to the European Parliament have been held in Poland since 2004, as a consequence of Poland's entry into the European Union. These elections were conducted using an electoral system based on constitutional norms (albeit only general ones), the European Parliament Election Ordinance Act and then the

Electoral Code.

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 divided in each district), 
• The method of determining the results of the election (this is determined by the electoral formula and the elements contained therein such as the electoral method or statutory electoral thresholds),
• The method of voting (in other words, the voter's rights during voting - how many votes he has, whether he can accumulate them, etc.).
  

Structure of electoral districts

Electoral formula

Elections to the European Parliament are conducted using a proportional representation formula using the d'Hondt and Hare-Niemeyer electoral methods.

The distribution of seats among electoral committees is carried out at the level of the entire country (in practice, the entire country is one electoral district). This division is carried out using the d'Hondt method on the basis of the number of votes obtained by all the district lists of individual committees. Then - within each committee separately - the seats obtained by the committee are distributed among its district lists using the Hare-Niemeyer method. The seats within each district list are allocated in order of the number of votes obtained.

In these elections, a statutory threshold was applied relating to validly cast votes nationwide. In order to participate in the distribution of seats, the electoral lists of a given committee (collectively) had to exceed a threshold of 5% of the validly cast votes. In contrast, no higher threshold was introduced for coalitions, nor was there any possibility of an exemption for committees of voters affiliated with national minority organizations.

Given that seats are distributed among electoral committees at the level of a nationwide constituency, not at the level of 13 electoral districts, the amount of natural thresholds in these elections is relatively low. As a result, the elections to the European Parliament are the only elections of authorities in Poland in which exceeding the statutory threshold guarantees in any situation the attainment of seats (and not just participation in the distribution of seats).

A unique situation occurred in 2019, when 52 members of the European Parliament were elected, but only 51 of them could take their seats at the beginning of the term (the 52nd seat could only be taken after the UK left the European Union). The problem arose as to how to indicate who among those elected would take their seats at a later date. To this end, new regulations were introduced, according to which the person elected with the smallest number of votes from the lists of that grouping that won the 52nd seat at the stage of division by the d'Hondt method had to wait to take his seat.

Method of voting

Each voter has one vote, which he casts for the selected electoral list submitted by the electoral committee in the district, together with the indication of the specific candidate from that list to whom he gave his support. Thus, open lists were used. Candidates on a given committee's district list took seats in the order of the number of votes received. If a seat became vacant, the next candidate from the same list was given priority to take it according to the number of votes received.

Maciej Onasz, based on: Onasz Maciej, Inżynieria wyborcza w Polsce od roku 1989, Łódź 2017; Ustawa z dnia 23 stycznia 2004 r. Ordynacja wyborcza do Parlamentu Europejskiego, Dz.U. 2004 nr 25 poz. 219 (z późn. zm.); Ustawa z dnia 5 stycznia 2011 r. - Kodeks wyborczy, Dz.U. 2011 nr 21 poz. 112 (z późn. zm.).