Referendum for and against the President of Warsaw

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz,
photo by: Piotr Drabik/Wikimedia Commons/CC

On 13th October we had an referendum for/against the current President of Warsaw. Opposition of the President of Warsaw (and the ruling party called Civic Platform) wanted to throw down Mrs. Hanna-Gronkiewicz-Waltz from her office.

That didn't happen in the end, as the referendum was invalid. Too little people went to vote. Tho from those who voted, around 95% wanted to end the President's post before the constitutional-end in 2014.

If you want to know more about the referendum, continue reading.




For voting and referendum Warsaw is divided into small regions. For this referendum there were 863 small voting regions (called "obwodowa komisja"in Polish). They are divided by the street name and number.

Before voting/referendum takes place on every building there should be an information where the people can vote. Where means "number of the voting region", "name of place" and "address". Usually the voting is held in schools. If there is no info on the building, it can be checked online here. In one building can be more than just 1voting region. See photos below:

To vote you need to show your ID and sign that you received the voting papers. Who do you show them? There is always so called "comission" (komisja) which is managing things, making sure the voting is valid etc. Comission is made from 3 people, each having the list of his/her buildings with names of people who can vote.

You shouldn't show your vote to anyone. That's why there are screens on the tables. After you crossed the option (yes/no) or chose a candidate you voted for (in elections) you put it in the box with the Polish flag and coats of arms. And it's done.

When people know the votes? In Poland there is "election silence" (cisza wyborcza) so starting from the 00:00 the day before to the end of voting/referendum the % of voters and their choices are unknown. This time referendum lasted from 07:00 to 21:00. Preliminary results are known the same night, usually.

People in here are often trying to bypass the electional silence. Some are using twitter for that. During this referendum they used #grzybobranie as a way to provide with percentage of voters and other related information. Grzybobranie is Polish term for mushroom hunting about which I've wrote earlier. So, just tweets during 13th October might be telling about the referendum. Some online media also referred to the "mushroom hunting messages" from Twitter. Why #grzybobranie? Because some politicians from the Civic Platform (to which the President of Warsaw belongs) suggested people should go for a trip outside Warsaw and don't vote.

Is the Polish system different from your country's? Does it look similar? Share your knowledge with others in comments.