Next Polish parliamentary election

Next Polish parliamentary election

Not later than November 2019

All 460 seats to the Sejm 231 seats are needed for a majority in the Sejm All 100 seats to the Senate of Poland Opinion polls   Leader Beata Szydło (PM candidate) Grzegorz Schetyna Paweł Kukiz Party PiS PO Kukiz'15 Leader since 20 June 2015 26 January 2016 28 July 2015 Leader's seat 12 – Chrzanów 33 – Kielce 19 – Warsaw I Last election 235 seats, 37.58% 138 seats, 24.09% 42 seats, 8.81% Current seats 234 138 40   Leader Ryszard Petru Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz Ryszard Galla Party .N PSL MN Leader since 31 May 2015 7 November 2015 25 September 2005 Leader's seat 19 – Warsaw I 15 - Tarnów 21 - Opole Last election 28 seats, 7.60% 16 seats, 5.13% 1 seats, 0.18% Current seats 29 16 1

Incumbent Prime Minister Beata Szydło PiS

The next Polish parliamentary elections must be held not later than November 2019. All 460 members of the Sejm and 100 senators will be elected.

Background

Following the 2015 parliamentary elections the Law and Justice (PiS) party was able form a majority government, after receiving 235 seats to the 138 won by their main competitor, Civic Platform, the first time in the post-communist era that a party had won an outright majority in parliamentary elections.^[1][2] Beata Szydło became Prime Minister on 16 November 2015. On 23 December 2015 the Sejm passed a law, which reorganized the Constitutional Court, introducing a requirement for a two-thirds majority and the mandatory participation of at least 13, instead of 9 of the 15 judges. Article 190 (5) of the Polish Constitution requires only the majority of votes also in early 2016 PiS' government passed a law starting the process of giving the government full control of state radio and television.^[3] After that, the Committee for the Defence of Democracy, with help from the Modern party, started mass demonstrations across the country.^[4]

Electoral system

The 460 members of the Sejm are elected by open party-list proportional representation in multi-member constituencies. Seats are allocated using the D'hondt method, with a 5% threshold for single parties and 8% threshold for coalitions (although requirements waived for national minorities). The Senate is elected using first-past-the-post voting in single-member districts.^[5] Candidates for Deputies are nominated either by the electoral committees of the various political parties and or by individual voter committees.^[6]

Overall, the Sejm includes 460 MPs. Should a party have 231 or more deputies in Parliament, it has an absolute majority and could thus govern autonomously, without a coalition partner. The constitution can be amended with a supermajority of two-thirds, or 307 deputies.

Opinion polls

References

Elections and referendums in Poland Royal elections 1573 1576 1587 1632 1648 1669 1674 1697 1704 1733 1764 Parliamentary elections 1919 1922 1928 1930 1935 1938 1947 1952 1957 1961 1965 1969 1972 1976 1980 1985 1989 1991 1993 1997 2001 2005 2007 2011 2015 Next Presidential elections 1922 (9 Dec) 1922 (20 Dec) 1926 (May) 1926 (Jun) 1933 1947 1989 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 Local elections 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 European elections 2004 2009 2014 2019 Referendums 1920 1921 1946 1987 1996 1997 2003 2015