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Polish 2014 Elections Coverage

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The number of invalid votes
keeps growing!

There are already more than 5 million invalid votes in the 2014 regional elections. Interestingly, this number continues to grow even though the election was held more than two months ago!

When the public almost forgot about the irregularities and problems that surrounded the 2014 regional elections, yet another sensational report on these elections surfaced from the National Election Commission (“NEC”).
In addition to the great failure of the NEC’s computer systems during the process of vote counting now the public learned that there is more to it than initially revealed. Two months after the election, the number of invalid votes continues to increase!

According to the official information from the National Election Commission, as of January 16, 2015, the number of invalid votes was as follow:

 

Municipal Councils and County Towns - 758 663 (5.16%)
County Councils - 1 592 953 (16.67%)
 Regional Assemblies - 2 551 855 (17.93%)
Heads of Municipalities and Mayors - 311 240 (2.14%)


Total invalid votes – 5,214,711

 

In order to better comprehend the significance of these invalid votes, the comparison with the respective results of the 2010 regional elections is helpful.

 

Municipal councils and county towns – (3.66% vs. 5.16%) - increase of 41%
County Councils – (8.18% vs. 16.67%) - increase of 104%
Regional Assemblies – (12.06% vs. 17.93%) - increase of 49%
Head of Municipalities and Mayors – (1.66% vs. 2.14%) - increase of 29%

 

As this comparison demonstrates, the increase of invalid votes in the latest elections is unusually high. Also it is disturbing that two months after the elections, still the votes have not been counted yet. The NEC announced that all votes are counted manually and the whole process is to be completed in February 2015.

 

The NEC manipulates the presentation of invalid votes. At a press conference on November 22, 2014, when the final results were announced, the NEC Chairman did speak of “great interest in the invalid votes.” However, he did not present the total number of invalid vote but instead he only announced a percentage of the invalid votes. Based on this information, it was determined that the NEC reported 4,806,544 of invalid votes on November 22, 2014. After the votes to the regional assemblies were counted, the NEC reported on December 11, 2014, that the number of invalid votes at to the regional assemblies was determined to be 2,470 178 and the NEC posted on its website only invalid votes at the regional level. Based on this information, the total number of invalid votes for the entire country increased to 5,176,242.

 

The latest revelation that the total number of invalid vote increased to 5,214,711 by mid-January brings completely new meaning to the words of the NEC’ representative announcing the "final" results ..." at a press conference: “We do not give you the results with percentage reference, because it is enormous." Indeed, it is “enormous”. Neither the failure of the computer system of dubious origin nor „specialized”, professionally trained NEC election officials are able to explain this outcome. Hence, the Polish people are left with nothing more than counting for the "miracle" or rather lack of the miracles over the voting box in the future.