The Polish National Electoral Commission has rejected financial statements from last year’s parliamentary elections by two electoral committees belonging to opposition parties – Nowoczesna (Modern) and Razem (Together Party), a move which could mean significant reductions in state subsidies for them.

The financial statement by the Nowoczesna party was rejected because it violated the rule that financial resources of a party’s electoral committee may only come from the electoral fund of the party.

Financial analyses earlier in the year showed that Nowoczesna transferred almost PLN 2 million (EUR 457,000/USD 506,000) from the party account directly to the electoral committee account, instead of transferring the money to the account of the party’s electoral fund first.

The Together Party, which has no seats in parliament, violated the rules in a similar way but on a much smaller scale – PLN 10,000 (EUR 2,286/USD 2,531) – and although the transfer was returned after the mistake was spotted, the money had already been spent on election expenses.

Rejecting a financial statement may result in a party losing up to 75 percent of the subsidy that it receives, which depends on the number of mandates in parliament won in an election, and also up to 75 percent of the subvention that a party gets if it passes a specific threshold of votes received in the elections, even if it does not enter parliament.

Nowoczesna wants to challenge the Polish National Electoral Commission’s decision.