Controversy surrounding Mentzen’s decision. Hermelinski’s comments

Starting the presidential campaign at this time is a kind of circumvention of the law, but I do not see any provisions that could punish it – former chairman of the National Electoral Commission, retired judge of the Constitutional Court Wojciech Hermeliński told PAP when asked about the launch of Sławomir Mentzen’s election campaign.

One of the leaders of the Confederation, Sławomir Mentzen, officially announced his participation in next year’s presidential elections at Saturday’s convention. He is the first candidate to declare his intention to run in the upcoming presidential elections, which will take place next summer. These elections have not yet been officially ordered – according to the constitution, they are ordered by the Speaker of the Sejm on a day not earlier than 100 days and no later than 75 days before the end of the term of the incumbent president. Despite this, Mentzen launched his election campaign at the convention held on Saturday in Warsaw.

The president of the Left Club, Anna Maria Żukowska, drew attention to this, accusing Mentzen of violating the regulations.

I inform you that you are clearly violating the provisions of the Electoral Code, as it is forbidden to conduct an electoral campaign before the announcement of the election date. The National Electoral Commission will certainly be attentive to this fact.

— she wrote on the X platform.

The PAP asked Wojciech Hermeliński, a retired judge of the Constitutional Court and chairman of the National Electoral Commission in the years 2014-2019, about this case. He said that although he did not attend the Mentzen convention, he stressed that the election campaign begins only when the competent authority orders elections and sets their date.

If Mentzen wants to run for president, he can’t do it yet. He must wait for the marshal’s announcement.

– said Hermelinski.

In your opinion, in this case we should rather talk about a pre-campaign.

Hermeliński pointed out that politicians often start pre-campaigning before the election date is set, but do not face any consequences because there are no regulations directly prohibiting it.

For years, before every election, the National Electoral Commission has been appealing to people not to do this and wait for the election date to be set, but most politicians do not follow it.

– Hermelinski recalled.

No legal basis

Hermeliński further emphasized that starting a pre-campaign before the election date has no legal basis, but is in no way prohibited, so it may result in penalties.

Unfortunately, the legislator does nothing about this, despite constant calls from the National Electoral Commission to normalize this issue.

– Hermelinski noticed.

He also stressed that, in his opinion, the pre-campaign should be included in the liquidation of the electoral campaign later by the National Electoral Commission.

But nobody does it, and the legislator doesn’t care.

– he admitted.

Therefore, even if the leader of the Confederation speaks about the presidential campaign, I do not see any penal provision or any other provision that could punish him for this.

– he said.

This is obviously a form of evasion of the law, but I cannot find any regulations imposing sanctions for this.

– he added.

Presidential elections will take place in the spring, Andrzej Duda ends his term in August 2025.

evil/PAP

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