During Thursday’s meeting of the Bolesławiec County Council, the head of the body, Wojciech Kasprzyk, informed the local government councillors that on November 29 he had received the draft decision of the electoral commissioner concerning the number of seats in next year’s local government elections to the council.
In the 2018 elections, the individual constituencies were allocated the following numbers of seats:
- constituency no. 1: City of Bolesławiec – 9;
- constituency no. 2: Nowogrodziec Municipality; Osiecznica Municipality – 5;
- constituency no. 3: Bolesławiec Municipality – 3;
- constituency no. 4: Gromadka Municipality; Warta Bolesławiecka Municipality – 4.
Under the new draft, Bolesławiec Municipality is to have 4 councillors, while Warta and Gromadka will have only 3. This is reportedly connected with the depopulation of the latter two municipalities.
As one opposition councillor explained, councils have the right to issue an opinion on the draft and, if it enters into force, to challenge the electoral commissioner’s decision. Nevertheless, Council Chair W. Kasprzyk immediately announced that he did not intend to “submit any comments on the draft,” while the secretary of Bolesławiec County, Sylwia Chruszcz, reminded the councillors that the electoral commissioner had based the draft decision on a resolution of the National Electoral Commission. She also said that it concerned “the obligation to verify the country’s territorial division.”
Councillor Tomasz Matyjewicz, who is also the secretary of Gromadka Municipality, took the floor as well. He stated that the “political dimension” of the decision was “certainly unfair.”
We will return to the subject.