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Parliament rejects Senate objection to extending local gov’t office term

In a vote on Friday, 228 MPs supported the rejection of the upper house's resolution, 218 were against and five abstained.
Mateusz Marek/PAP

The Sejm, the lower house of Polish parliament, has voted against the Senate’s resolution to scrap the entire bill extending the term of office of local governments by several months to avoid an election clash next autumn.

In a vote on Friday, 228 MPs supported the rejection of the upper house’s resolution, 218 were against and five abstained.

Under the legislation authored by the ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), the term of office of local authorities, which expires in 2023, will be extended to April 30, 2024. This paves the way for setting putting back local elections and separating them from the general elections, which will be held in the autumn 2023.

Local and national elections in Poland used to be held every four years, but with a one-year difference between them. According to this model, the last parliamentary elections were held in 2019 and the last local elections in 2018.

But in 2018, PiS MPs passed an amendment that extended the term of office of local governments from four to five years, which led to the 2023 election overlap.

The bill will now be sent to the president.

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