A three-part referendum was held in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

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

single-member constituencies A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vot ...

for

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

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 can be the percentage of registered voters, eligible voters, or all voting-age people. According to Stanford Univ ...

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 served as President of Poland from 2010 to 2015. Komorowski served as Minister of Defence from 2000 to 2001. As Marshal of the Sejm, Komorowski exercis ...

, 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 pr ...

, 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 president of Poland since 6 August 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and th ...

(34.76%) in the first round. However third-placed candidate

Paweł Kukiz Paweł Piotr Kukiz (born 24 June 1963) is a Polish politician, singer and actor. He is the leader of Kukiz'15, a non-partisan political alliance campaigning for single-member districts, and was a candidate in the 2015 presidential election, in whi ...

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 2015 elections in Poland 2015 2015 referendums Electoral reform referendums Electoral reform in Poland September 2015 events in Europe