Pierwsza sesja trzeciej kadencji sejmiku

A voivodeship sejmik ( pl, sejmik województwa), also known as a provincial or regional assembly, is the regional-level elected

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

for each of the sixteen

voivodeships of Poland , alt_name = province, state , map = , category = Provinces (unitary local government subdivision) , territory = Republic of Poland , start_date = , current_number = 16 voivodeships ...

. Machnikowski et al., p. 21 Sejmiks are elected to five-year terms, decided during nationwide

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

. The size of the legislative assembly varies for each voivodeship depending on the population; in lower populated provinces, there are 30 members, while in the most populous (

Masovian Voivodeship The Masovian Voivodeship, also known as the Mazovia Province ( pl, województwo mazowieckie ) is a voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, with its capital located in the city of Warsaw, which also serves as the capital of the country. Th ...

) there are 51 members. Elected representatives of an assembly are known as councillors (''radni'').

Origins

The word ''

sejmik A sejmik (, diminutive of ''sejm'', occasionally translated as a ''dietine''; lt, seimelis) was one of various local parliaments in the history of Poland and history of Lithuania. The first sejmiks were regional assemblies in the Kingdom of ...

'' is a diminutive of ''

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 ...

'', a historical term for an assembly of nobles, and is now the name of the lower house of the Polish National Assembly. The word ''sejmik'' was consciously chosen by lawmakers during regional reorganization reforms in the 1990s to eliminate the term ''rada wojewódzka'' (voivodeship council), as the definition conjured memories of people's councils during the communist People's Republic of Poland era. Regulski, p. 46 Initially, elected regional assemblies were created by the government of Prime Minister

Tadeusz Mazowiecki Tadeusz Mazowiecki (; 18 April 1927 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime min ...

under his administration's decentralization programme, with the regional assemblies acting as advisory bodies to the centrally-appointed

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the ...

. Ochman, p. 16 Surazska, p. 87 Under the administration of Jerzy Buzek in 1998, the contemporary regional assemblies were created by the

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 ...

with the reorganization of provincial borders and the devolution of powers to the governments of the new voivodeships. Tatur, pp. 65-66

Elections

Assemblies are elected for a five-year term during nationwide

. Similar to nationwide elections for

members, councillors for provincial assemblies are elected from party lists using

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

within a five percent voting threshold for each individual voivodeship. Council of Europe, p. 14 Following their election and swearing-in, the councillors of an assembly elect a

voivodeship marshal A voivodeship marshal ( pl, marszałek województwa, ) is the head of the provincial-level government for each of the sixteen voivodeships of Poland. Elected by councillors from the provincial assembly, the marshal is the head of the collective ...

(''marszałek województwa'') and at most two vice-marshals from among their ranks, who, along with normally two other members, will form an

executive board A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

(''zarząd województwa'').

Prokop Prokop may mean either of two Hussite generals, both of whom died in the 1434 battle of Lipan: * Prokop the Great * Prokop the Lesser Other people who bore the name Prokop: * Procopius, 6c historian * Saint Prokop, or Procopius of Sázava (died 1 ...

, p. 144 The board acts as the collective executive body of the voivodeship, and is the province's ''de facto'' cabinet.

, p. 139 The assembly additionally elects a chairman and deputy chairmen from among their ranks, who are tasked in organizing the assembly's business and presiding over debates.

, p. 142 If the assembly fails to elect an executive board within three months following an election, the legislature must dissolve itself and the voivodeship is obliged to call another election.

, pp. 141-142 Earlier elections can also be approved in the event of a public referendum or if the

has dissolved a regional assembly.

, p. 141

Powers

Provincial assemblies can debate, adopt and pass statutes on matters concerning the province which are not reserved for the administration of the central government. Since the end of the 1990s, the powers of the sejmiks and their respective executive boards have grown. These include matters such as economic development strategies, spatial management plans, managing provincially-controlled rail operators, waste and water management, environmental protection, regional heritage protection, voting on the provincial budget, and appointing a supervisory board to manage

voivodeship road According to classes and categories of public roads in Poland, a voivodeship road ( pl, droga wojewódzka) is a category of roads one step below national roads in importance. The roads are numbered from 100 to 993. Total length of voivodeship r ...

OECD The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...

, p. 256 However, sejmiks are unable to enact provincewide taxes to fund internal policies and projects, and remain dependent on the central government for financing such operations. Throughout its elected term, the assembly reserves the right to hold the marshal and the executive board accountable for their policies. Assemblies can also dismiss the governing marshal upon a three-fifths majority

vote of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

, after which results in the collapse of the executive board, and a new marshal and board are chosen. Council of Europe, p. 17 Assemblies do not, on the other hand, have a say in the choice nor dismissal of the centrally-appointed

for the province. Assemblies are assisted by the voivodeship marshal's office (''urząd marszałkowski''), which provides legal, technical, and bureaucratic services to the body.

List

References

Works cited

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Voivodeship Sejmik Government of Poland Politics of Poland