Election campaign, election agitation, time, analytical problems

Election campaign

Article 104.

The election campaign begins on the date of announcement of the act of the competent authority on ordering elections and ends 24 hours before voting day.

Article [various]

[Election committees] conduct, on an exclusive basis, an election campaign for candidates.

Art.84.

[Election committees], in particular, conduct an election campaign for candidates on an exclusive basis

The problem of inconsistency of regulations

Election campaign

Article 106

§ 1 Election campaigning may be carried out by each election committee and each voter, including the collection of signatures in support of candidates' applications after obtaining the written consent of the election representative.

Problem niespójności przepisów

Election campaign

Powołane przepisy z jednej strony ustanawiają wyłączność komitetów wyborczych na prowadzenie kampanii wyborczej i zasadę finansowania kampanii ze środków własnych komitetu, z drugiej jednak zaś pozwalają każdemu wyborcy na prowadzenie agitacji wyborczej bez uprzedniej zgody pełnomocnika komitetu. Konsekwencją jest możliwość prowadzenia przez dowolne podmioty (przez wyborców –legalnie, przez inne podmioty –nielegalnie, ale bez zagrożenia żadnymi sankcjami) agitacji wyborczej i finansowanie jej bez ograniczeń, co może prowadzić do obejścia przepisów określających dozwolone źródła środków finansowych komitetów, terminy ich pozyskiwania i wydatkowania oraz limity wydatków, a także pozostawia taką działalność poza jakąkolwiek kontrolą.

PKW, Informacja o realizacji przepisów Kodeksu wyborczego oraz propozycje ich zmiany, 2021.

Election campaign

Activities of actors of the political process carried out in public space, the aim of which is to gain, maintain, and participate in power with the use of tools characteristic of democratic systems

Election campaign

Election agitation

Activities of political process actors aimed at persuading potential voters to make a specific decision (concrete behavior) during the act of voting, in relation to a specific electoral process(es).

Election agitation

• Election campaigning is an element of the election campaign, but not all campaign activities are election campaigning.
•      Another possible approach: agitation understood as a single action, campaign understood as a process.

Election campaign

Election campaigning and political activity: the campaign is an element of political activity, but political activity is a broader concept: all actions undertaken by an actor of the political process aimed at gaining, maintaining, participating in power - without specifying the space in which they are to be carried out (and therefore in and internal organizational activities, or within other structures, including public authorities) and the nature of activities (thus also activities characteristic of non-democratic systems).

Election campaign - duration

• Is it possible to run a campaign only during the code period?
•      When does the election campaign start and end? Do such moments even exist?

Election campaign - duration

• Are all elections equally important, or do individual actors establish a hierarchy for them?
•          For national groupings, the most important are elections to the Sejm (if we divide parliamentary elections into the Sejm and the Senate) (hereinafter referred to as the president, the Senate if we separate it, [local government and the European Parliament]),
•          For local parties, the most important are local governments, because in others they do not run or treat them as additional elections (e.g. Dutkiewicz and Citizens to the Senate).

Election campaign - duration

Is the campaign always organized with the upcoming elections in mind?

     The target may be other (more important) elections taking place later (e.g. treating the elections to the EP and local government in 2014 and the presidential elections in 2015 as a tool in the campaign for the parliamentary elections in 2015),
     The next election of a given type may be the target (treating, for example, the elections to the municipal council in 2018 as part of the campaign aimed at elections in 2023).

Election campaign - duration

Is the election campaign permanent?

Agitacja wyborcza

Art.105.

• §1.Agitacją wyborczą jest publiczne nakłanianie lub zachęcanie do głosowania wokreślony sposób, w tym w szczególności do głosowania na kandydata określonego komitetu wyborczego.
• §2.Agitację wyborczą można prowadzić od dnia przyjęcia przez właściwy organ zawiadomienia o utworzeniu komitetu wyborczego na zasadach, w formach i w miejscach, określonych przepisami kodeksu.