A three-part referendum was held in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

on 6 September 2015. Voters were asked whether they approved of introducing

single-member constituencies A single-member district or constituency is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a Multiwinner voting, multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. In some countries, such as ...

for

Sejm The Sejm (), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (), is the lower house of the bicameralism, bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of the Third Polish Republic since the Polish People' ...

elections, maintaining state financing of political parties and introducing a presumption in favour of the taxpayer in disputes over the tax law. The

voter turnout In political science, voter turnout is the participation rate (often defined as those who cast a ballot) of a given election. This is typically either the percentage of Voter registration, registered voters, Suffrage, eligible voters, or all Voti ...

of 7.80 percent was well below the 50-percent threshold required for the referendum results to be legally binding.Obwieszczenie Państwowej Komisji Wyborczej z dnia 7 września 2015 r. o wynikach głosowania i wyniku referendum przeprowadzonego w dniu 6 września 2015 r.
(Announcement of the National Electoral Commission of 7 September 2015 on the results of the vote and the result of the referendum held on 6 September 2015)

Background

The referendums were ordered by President

Bronisław Komorowski Bronisław Maria Komorowski (; born 4 June 1952) is a Polish politician and historian who was the fifth president of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski previously served as Ministry of National Defence (Poland), Minister of National Defence ...

, who had promised to hold a referendum on the electoral system after the first round of the

presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The ...

, Although he had been leading in the polls, Komorowski received fewer votes (33.77%) than his main opponent

Andrzej Duda Andrzej Sebastian Duda (born 16 May 1972) is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as the sixth president of Poland since 2015. Before becoming president, he served as a Member of the Sejm from 2011 to 2014 and before becoming Member of ...

(34.76%) in the first round. However third-placed candidate Paweł Kukiz received 20.8% of the vote, campaigning on introducing single-member constituencies for Sejm elections. A day after the May elections, Komorowski made an instantaneous decision to hold the referendum. Justifying his initiative, he explained that he saw high support for Kukiz as a signal that voters wanted changes.

Questions

The referendum asked voters the following three yes-or-no questions: # Are you in favour of introducing single-member constituencies in elections to the

of the Republic of Poland? # Are you in favour of maintaining the current method of financing of political parties from the national budget? # Are you in favour of introducing a general rule of resolving doubts regarding the interpretation of taxation law in favour of the tax-payer?

Results

Notes

References

{{Polish elections

Referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...

Referendums in Poland

Electoral reform referendums Electoral reform in Poland