Local electoral participation– Evidence from Poland

The cornerstone of a democratic country is a participation of its inhabitants in decision making on vital issues for them. Local self-government elections become increasingly important although it is considered that they are ranked third in order of significance after presidential and parliamentary elections (their significance is gauged according to voter turnout). One has to admit that the stature of the local self-government elections in perception of the citizens increases. It is due to the fact that local and regional elections seize to be regarded as belonging to second-order elections. The purpose of the presented research is a diagnosis of a level of participation in local elections in Poland as well as the ambit of enjoying of passive and active electoral rights. The subject of the paper is to compare 7 elections to local government in Poland since 1990. The aim is to compare these elections and find similarities and differences. The first goal is to describe what are the electoral law and electoral procedures in Poland. It concerns codes of conducts elections, the qualification for citizenship, facilities for voters, procedure for security of the election results, the process of boundary revision, regulation campaign finance and election broadcasting. The second goal is to present an empirical study on local elections (1990-2014). The research includes turnout, vote share, district magnitudes, vote receive in local assembly election and mayor election. The result of the research would be useful for forming conclusions about trends in local government elections in Poland.