Rozwiązanie organu stanowiącego/en

DISSOLUTION OF A DECISION-MAKING BODY – a manner of ending the → term of office of the representative body (constituting, legislative and control). The term of office may end after the period provided for by law (which is a standard termination of the body’s powers, e.g., after four years) or as a result of its termination in situations provided for by law and as a result of actions of entities authorized by the law. The Constitution of the Republic of Poland provides for the possibility of early termination of the Sejm’s term (institution of shortening the term of office). Such a situation may occur either as a result of the action of the chamber itself (resolution adopted by a 2/3 majority of votes of the statutory number of deputies) or the actions of the President of the Republic of Poland (in the case of: failure of the parliament to adopt a budget act on a given date or failure to appoint a council of ministers enjoying the trust of the chamber of deputies). Shortening the Sejm’s term of office means simultaneously shortening the Senate’s term of office. The Constitution also provides for the possibility for the members of the local-government community to decide in a referendum on matters concerning this community, including the dismissal of the local-government body coming from the direct elections. In the county and the voivodship self-government, this applies to the council and the sejmik, respectively. Since 2002, in the municipality, this may refer to both the decision-making and control body as well as the executive body: the village mayor/mayor/president of the city (previously the executive body was made of the board and the village mayor/mayor/president of the city and it did not come from direct elections). The dismissal of the constituting body of the local-government unit before the end of the term of office can only be resolved in the → referendum, at the request of residents (at least 10% of residents of the municipality or county authorized to vote, and in the case of voivodships – at least 5%). Since 2006, a principle has been in force that the effectiveness of voting on the recall depends on the fact that no less than 3/5 of the number of voters participating in the selection of the recalling body (by that time – attendance at a minimum level of 30%) takes part in the referendum voting. Such a decision concerning a local-government unit may also be made due to repeated violations of the constitution or statutes – then the President of the Council of Ministers applies a supervision measure in the form of an application to the parliament for the dissolution of the local-government body. In the case of dissolution of the municipal council, the executive body is still functioning, and in the event of the dissolution of the county council and the voivodship sejmik, the board is also dissolved [ T. Słomka ].

Literature: M. Rachwał, Demokracja bezpośrednia w procesie kształtowania się społeczeństwa obywatelskiego w Polsce, Warszawa 2010 ■ T. Włodek, Instytucja rozwiązania parlamentu w polskim prawie konstytucyjnym, Warszawa 2009.