Top court confirms former Polish PM violated law trying to organise elections in pandemic

Poland’s top administrative court has rejected an appeal by former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki against his conviction for ordering the organisation of elections by post during the pandemic in 2020. A lower court had previously found that he did so in “gross violation of the law”.

The Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) was Morawiecki’s only avenue of appeal, meaning that he now has a final verdict against him.

NSA: Morawiecki złamał prawo przy wyborach kopertowych #wyborcza https://t.co/EEZIumQ1du

— Gazeta Wyborcza.pl (@gazeta_wyborcza) June 28, 2024

The issue dates back to spring 2020, when, during the first wave of the pandemic in Poland, the then Law and Justice (PiS) government sought to organise that year’s presidential elections entirely by post.

It argued that this was necessary due to the epidemiological situation. However, critics accused PiS of acting politically, because holding elections as quickly as possible would favour the PiS-backed incumbent Andrzej Duda, who was seeking a second term as president.

They also claimed that the manner in which the government sought to organise those elections violated various laws. Those accusations have been supported by court rulings as well as a report by the state auditor.

Eventually, the postal elections were abandoned, despite the fact that at least tens of millions of zloty had been spent on preparing them. Normal elections took place instead, and were narrowly won by Duda in a second-round run-off.

Parliament has approved the creation of a commission to investigate the postal elections that the PiS government tried to organise amid the pandemic in 2020 but which were eventually abandoned https://t.co/AuUAOikTCX

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 8, 2023

The specific case on which the NSA has now ruled stems from a complaint against Morawiecki’s actions launched in April 2020 by Adam Bodnar, who was then Poland’s commissioner for human rights and is now justice minister and prosecutor general in the government that replaced PiS in December 2023.

In a ruling issued by Warsaw’s provincial administrative court in September 2020, Morawiecki was found to have committed “a gross violation of the law” – including the constitution and the electoral code – in ordering the elections. He appealed to the NSA against that decision.

Today, the NSA upheld the lower court’s verdict, confirming that only the National Electoral Commission (PKW) has legal competence to organise elections.

“There was no substantive legal basis for issuing an order to Poczta Polska to undertake and implement activities aimed at preparing for the presidential elections,” said NSA judge Maciej Kobak, quoted by broadcaster TVN.

The prime minister committed a “gross violation of the law” when ordering preparations for postal elections this year, a court has ruled.

Poland „cannot be considered a state of law if [state] organs infringe provisions of the law,” write the judges https://t.co/2wHxC1gvj4

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 15, 2020

The ruling was welcomed by Bodnar, who told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily that “the situation we observed in April [2020], when the elections were organised, was a transgression of all the boundaries of the democratic rule of law and the principle of legalism”.

However, in a statement issued on social media, Morawiecki – whose PiS party is now Poland’s main opposition – called the NSA’s decision “completely disconnected from [the reality of] those times and the threat that existed then”.

He argued that as prime minister he had an obligation to try to organise elections in the safest possible way and that, had he not sought to do so, he would have faced legal action for endangering the health of citizens.

Dzisiejszy wyrok NSA jest w całkowitym oderwaniu od tamtych czasów i zagrożenia które wówczas panowało.

Jest też jasne, że gdyby nasz rząd nie podjął wówczas działań to dziś też by zapadł wyrok – tym razem obejmujący skargę na bezczynność i narażenie zdrowie obywateli.

Ten…

— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) June 28, 2024

Speaking to Notes from Poland after today’s ruling was issued, Patryk Wachowiec, a legal analyst at the Civic Development Forum (FOR), said that while it will not in itself have direct legal consequences, it could open the way for criminal and civil action against Morawiecki.

“It has now been officially confirmed that Morawiecki’s decision to request that Poczta Polska [organise the elections] was illegal, so as a result Morawiecki could be held criminally responsible for misuse of power as prime minister,” said Wachowiec, who noted that prosecutors are already investigating the issue.

“I also think there are grounds for civil claims by individuals whose data was unlawfully processed” as a result of Morawiecki’s decision, added Wachowiec.

A ruling in a separate case in 2021 found that the government’s digital affairs ministry unlawfully transferred the personal data of Polish voters to the post office as part of efforts to organise the 2020 elections by post.

The Polish government unlawfully shared personal data of all voters in Poland while attempting to organise a postal vote for last year’s presidential election, a court has ruled https://t.co/KGpQKb1MDm

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 24, 2021

After PiS lost its parliamentary majority in elections last year, the new ruling coalition approved the creation of a special commission to investigate the abandoned postal elections. It has since been holding hearings, with Morawiecki among the witnesses called.

Last month, another top court, the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), issued its own ruling stating that Morawiecki acted in line with the constitution when trying to organise the presidential elections by post.

However, that judgement was dismissed by the current ruling coalition, which pointed to the fact that the TK is stacked with PiS appointees, including some judges who were illegitimately appointed. The majority of judges on the TK panel that issued the ruling on Morawiecki are former PiS politicians.

A top court has ruled that former PiS PM @MorawieckiM acted legitimately in trying to organise postal elections in 2020.

The ruling – made by a panel consisting mostly of former PiS politicians – was rejected by an MP from the current ruling coalition https://t.co/Ex6gmI4nqL

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 21, 2024

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Main image credit: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.