Some reflections on financing the activities of men of trust from the state budget

Abstract

This article presents several reflections on the financing of men of trust activities from public funds. It was pointed out that the institution of the man of trust undoubtedly plays an important role in ensuring that the electoral process, and above all its culminating part, which is the voting day, is conducted in accordance with the principles that should govern elections in a democratic state ruled by law. Attention was drawn to the fact that as a result of changes to the electoral law introduced at the beginning of 2023, which resulted in the introduction of – among other things – a solution according to which a man of trust appointed to a district electoral commission is entitled to a per diem amounting to 40% of the flat-rate per diem allowance of members of the precinct electoral commissions, a question arose about the validity of this solution. This analysis presents the positions regarding this regulation expressed in the legislative process. The doubts and questions raised during the meeting were recalled. Finally, the practical aspects of the introduced regulation were pointed out, for example its impact on the costs of conducting electoral processes. The example was based on the first elections in which this solution was used, i.e. elections to the Sejm of the Republic of Poland and the Senate of the Republic of Poland in 2023. It was considered whether this form of financing the activities of men of trust, who are representatives of candidates and their electoral committees representing their interests during voting and determining election results, may be considered indirect – public – financing of political parties, and if so, what is the scale. Concerns were also expressed about the amount of expenditure from the state budget to finance the activities of men of trust in local government elections, the scale of which is incomparable to parliamentary elections.