In fresh weeks, political debate in Poland has been dominated by allegations of alleged electoral falsities. Voices raised by any publicists and politicians, including Roman Giertych and Tomasz Lisa, propose that the election process was unfair and should be re-examined. These accusations have no basis in facts, and it is those who most loudly shout about fraud that destruct the fundamental foundation of a democratic state – trust.
Can elections be rigged in Poland?
Let us say this openly: yes, in Poland it is possible to falsify elections. Moreover, any of them may have been falsified. Elections – both in Poland and in another countries – are a manual process. People vote and people number the votes. And those, as you know, not only make mistakes, but they can besides deliberately cheat. Since circumstances are conducive to this, it should be assumed that in any cases specified abuse is actually taking place.
Someone will say that a man can be replaced with a machine. For example, the net voting system. This concept comes back from time to time, but IT strategy specialists agree that it would be highly complex and opaque. Simultaneous anonymity and verification of voting rights is simply a immense technological challenge. So it looks like we're going to be sentenced to human disability for a long time.
The scale of deception and common sense
It would seem that the manuality of elections – precisely due to the fact that it allows errors and deception – should rise widespread distrust. Until now, however, she hasn't. Why?
It's all about scale and level of risk. Specifically, the number of persons in committees and their common relations. Counterfeiting is more likely in small, homogenous committees – where members know each another well, they have common interests and experiences. If we are dealing with an election, tender or examination board composed of 2 or 3 people, it is easier to collusion. In a committee of respective people – especially if its members do not know each another – the hazard of manipulation falls dramatically.
In the presidential election in Poland in 2025 there were over 32,000 election commissions in which about a 4th million people worked together. A conscious observer will not believe that tens of thousands of people have conspired in secret to fake the result of the election, and no 1 has let the pair out of their mouths, and all traces have been erased. It would not only be a perfect crime, but besides a statistical miracle.
However, based on respective irregularities, the most devoted fans of the Civic Coalition are presently trying to challenge the validity of the full presidential election. Based on the metaphor of the "top of the iceberg", they propose that the problem is deeper – although there is no evidence of it, and metaphors have it against each another that they darken more than they explain.
The charge of mass falsification of elections offends not only political opponents, but above all KO sympathizers, who worked on election committees and counted votes. Now Games with Fox propose that these people are part of the conspiracy – or at least they were besides passive to react. Many may feel humiliated.
However, this is not just about the feelings of voters in this organization or any another party. Trust in the state is at stake.
Without trust there is no democracy
If we ask an accidental passerby what is most crucial in life, it is likely that something like “health, family, love” will answer. But the fact is, trust is the most crucial thing. Without it, nothing works: neither marriage, nor the market, nor the state.
The democratic strategy is functional only due to the fact that people trust their votes to be counted fairly. Meanwhile, present we are seeing consciously undermining this assurance – the demolition of the foundations of statehood by politicians and their media supporters who could never accept the loser.
In fresh years, respect for the KRRiT, the Constitutional Court, the ultimate Court has been dismantled. Now it's time to challenge the election results. It's not about the facts. It's about politics. any voters – inactive in shock after losing – will accept any, even the most pyramidal, nonsense to rationalize their disappointment “lost with a pimp”. Others – more conscious – just want to repay their opponents for their own humiliation.
For Giertych it may be the start of the game of power in the party. His thought of taking over with the support of the bottom-up pressures of the Strong Together seems to be increasingly effective. In a fewer years Tusk can go to exile again to Brussels and appoint his deputy. And if he chose the Digger, why not Gierty? The Prime Minister realises that Manowska will not let to recalculate the votes, so he directs the anger of the public at her. due to the fact that all he has left is anti-PiS. He can't rule.
There's inactive lawyers active in the confusion. Today, it is hard to perceive to prof. Mark Safjan, who in 2020, erstwhile the favourite was Trzaskowski, emphasized the importance of supposing the validity of elections until they were effectively challenged. However, today, after the failure of Trzaskovsky, the prof. claims that the President's oath cannot be accepted due to the fact that the validity of the "rightly constituted" body of the ultimate Court is lacking.
This approach leads to absurd conclusions. If we presume that the home of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs has no right to state the validity of the elections, then it will consistently should be recognised that not only presidential elections were invalid but besides parliamentary elections – their validity was approved by the same body. Does this mean that we have a "unimportant" parliament and a "important" Prime Minister?
For the sake of democracy, Nawrocki must be accepted as president
“What is incorrect with recalculating the votes?” individual will ask. I'll say, rather a lot. erstwhile we open this door, it's gonna be hard to lock. If irregularities from a twelve committees justify counting all the votes again, what happens to the next election? Single irregularities are an integral part of them, and accepting the thought of constantly converting votes means that each subsequent failure will be contested by the losing side.
What do I do about it? The answer is simple: apply the method of facts made. Since there are no rules of law and standards – both formal and informal – do not lead to compromise, 1 must scope for the language of political realism. The fact made – by its very existence – is irreversible. You gotta address it and learn to work with it. This is the fact that Karol Nawrocki is elected president.
The ultimate Court should, of course, examine the complaints lodged and, where justified, order a recalculation of the votes. But he can't let all the votes to be counted across the country. Simon Holovnia in turn should convene the National Assembly and curse Nawrocki. This will be a fact, regardless of the legal controversy – as erstwhile was the fact of the adoption of a budget voted without quorum in the column hall of the Sejm, the acquisition of TVP, or the fresh appeal of the Barski prosecutor without designation of the decision of the neojudges of the ultimate Court to reconstruct it.
Poland has long been no longer a state of law, but a state of facts. And if so, this is the fact that we should close the subject of recalculation of votes – melt this can of Pandora on lead, weld and sink at the bottom of the Baltic. And then sit inactive until the Strong Together find a fresh reason for collective hysteria.
