Our conversations with people from the National Electoral Commission show that on August 29, when the National Electoral Commission meets again, they will agree to the motion to reject the PiS report. For this, a majority in the National Electoral Commission is needed – Money.pl also came to similar conclusions. However, one necessary condition must first be met: the total amount of funds obtained or spent incorrectly must exceed 1%. PiS campaign expenses. PiS spent PLN 38.7 million on the campaign, that is, 1 percent. that is 387 thousand
According to statements by members of the National Electoral Commission – Ryszard Kalisz (nominated by the Left) and Sylwester Marciniak – the National Electoral Commission has not yet calculated this figure. And the PiS report was examined with extreme care by the National Electoral Commission. However, the commission has not yet finished counting. It wants to extract more documents from government agencies. An audit of the Government Legislation Center revealed that it employed people who actually worked on the campaign of former RCL leader Krzysztof Szczucki (now a PiS MP) – he himself assured that the employees were on vacation at the time. During the campaign, the NASK examined how PiS was perceived. Business Insider Polska wrote about the reviews requested by PKW in a text by Jolanta Ojczyk.
If we add together the equivalents from RCL and NASK, the total amount of irregularities – according to the estimates of our close interlocutors in the National Electoral Commission – will probably exceed PLN 387,000 zloty. And if that is the case, there is already a majority in the National Electoral Commission to reject the PiS report and adopt a resolution to reduce subsidies and allowances for this formation.
Only then will it become clear to what extent the National Electoral Commission will be able to reduce subsidies and subsidies to PiS. In addition, the party will have to reimburse the amount of the irregularity.
Article 148 of the Electoral Code states that the party’s reimbursement for the campaign may be reduced by three times the amount of the irregularity. The annual subsidy is also reduced by three times this amount. In total, the party may lose a maximum of 75%. Ultimately, if the amount of money incorrectly obtained or spent by PiS in the campaign amounts to half a million, PiS will lose a total of PLN 8 million during this period. If PLN 750 thousand, it is PLN 12 million. And if it were PLN 1 million, the total loss would be PLN 16 million. PiS’s loss may reach the limit of approximately PLN 100 million, but only if the National Electoral Commission adds multimillion-dollar irregularities, which seems very unlikely.
The party can appeal the NEC’s decision to the Supreme Court’s Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber. It was created during the PiS government and is not recognised as a court by the ruling camp, following the example of international courts. If PiS does not appeal the decision of the National Electoral Commission to the Extraordinary Control Chamber, it will look like an admission of guilt. But even if Jarosław Kaczyński’s party successfully appealed, it may not receive the money. After all, the Minister of Finance, currently Andrzej Domański, is ultimately responsible for sending the transfer to PiS – as well as to other formations.
PiS is already preparing for lean years after eight good years. In this party, it is heard that the National Electoral Commission is cutting the amounts received – or rather, the equivalent of services – to exceed the 1 percent maximum limit. campaign expenses. As we wrote in “Newsweek”, President Jarosław Kaczyński has already announced to his parliamentarians that when PiS loses money from the state budget, it will have to pay for the party’s activities, to which the MPs reacted with irritation..
PiS changed the National Electoral Commission and turned the whip against itself
Following changes ordered in 2018 by PiS, the National Electoral Commission is no longer made up of judges alone. Nominations from individual parties dominate in terms of numbers. The nine-person body includes two judges (the head of the National Electoral Commission, Sylwester Marciniak, and Wojciech Sych, who sits on the Constitutional Court and is close to PiS – although he was also a rebel against Julia Przyłębska), and there are two PiS appointees, but the remaining five members – that is, the majority – are people appointed by the ruling camp.
The “forest grandfathers” – as the judges who are members of the National Electoral Commission were once contemptuously called – have been replaced by appointees from individual parties, so they may have a stronger motivation not to give up on PiS. Jarosław Kaczyński’s party has turned the whip on itself.
The pressure on the National Electoral Commission is enormous. Both from the government, which is pushing for the rejection of the PiS report, and from Nowogrodzka. There are also hawks in the PiS camp, threatening that in the future, members of the National Electoral Commission can even expect to be accused of operating in an organized criminal group.
Politicians from the top of the Civic Coalition, but also from the left, clearly believe that the PiS financial report should be rejected. PO Secretary General, former head of the Interior and Administration Ministry, and now MEP Marcin Kierwiński, said bluntly: – For me, the matter is obvious and I will be very disappointed and surprised if the National Electoral Commission does not react to this. [wykorzystywanie państwowych pieniędzy w kampanii – przyp. red.] breaking the ordinance with force. The head of the Prime Minister’s office, Jan Grabiec, and the head of the government’s Standing Committee, Maciej Berek, who is the government’s “legal brain”, spoke in a similar spirit.
The National Election Commission was supposed to announce the decision on the PiS report first on July 14, then on July 31, and the new date is August 29.
