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Poland: Disabled and elderly excluded from EU elections
Amendment to Polish electoral law that was to enable many of the disabled and elderly to vote in the European Parliamentary elections has been blocked. By Agnieszka Rymsza
di Staff
On March 5th, 2009 Polish president did not sign the amendment to the electoral law that was to enable people with severe and moderate disabilities and people over 75 to vote through a plenipotentiary – another person appointed by them. It means that many Polish citizens will not be able to vote in European Parliament elections in June 2009.
The president sent the bill to the Constitutional Tribunal, arguing that it violates the Polish constitutional principle that says that elections should be direct. He also claimed that the changes could provoke many abuses.
The works on the amendment had been started many months ago, with high level of participation of NGOs acting for the benefit of people with disabilities and involvement of the Ombudsman. They, as well as the people with disabilities and the elderly and many other people do not agree with the presidential decision.
As for the question of the principle of directness many experts in constitutional law say that it does not say that a citizen should vote in person but it relates to the fact that in Poland eligible citizens vote directly for candidates (for presidents or MPs) and do not vote, for instance, for the members of the electoral college, which is the case in the United States. Many also say that already now many of the elderly and the disabled who have problems with hands or eyes go with their relatives to polling stations and after being registered ask them to fill out and cast votes for them. But not all people are able to get to polling stations.
What is more, each system is likely to produce abuses, but rather than abandoning everything maybe it would be more advisable to profit from experiences and security features used in other countries. For in many countries in the world, voting by proxy or correspondence voting have been in place for many years. Participation in the election is one of the most fundamental civic rights and government should do everything so that electoral systems enabled all citizens to exercise this right.
