Gloss to the Decision of the Supreme Court of 29 October 2019 (I NSW 103/19)

Abstract

Judicial control over the correct course of parliamentary elections is an important element of the broadly understood electoral procedure in a democratic state ruled by law. Such control is provided for in Article 101 of the Polish Constitution, which entrusts the Supreme Court with examining electoral protests and confirming the validity of elections to the Sejm and Senate. As a result of serious reservations indicated in the doctrine of constitutional law as to the constitutionality of the current National Council of the Judiciary and, as a consequence, constitutional doubts as to the appointment of certain persons to its position in 2018 in this Court, doubts may be raised not only in the scope of the Supreme Court’s control over parliamentary elections carried out on 13 October 2019, made with the participation of these people, but also in the matter of validity of the elections themselves. The glossed decision, despite its substantive correctness in leaving one of the electoral protests without further progress, is an example of these procedural doubts.