Confederation candidate not registered for Krakow mayoral election in Poland
In Krakow, Poland, Bartosz Bochenek, a candidate representing the far-right Confederation, was not registered to take part in the city’s mayoral election due to an insufficient number of valid signatures in his support. As Notes from Poland reports, Bochenek submitted just over 4,600 signatures, but the electoral commission reportedly deemed fewer than 3,000 valid. That same evening, the candidate confirmed that his candidacy had not been registered.
Invalid signatures
To register, contenders had to submit at least 3,000 signatures from Krakow residents by September 3. A total of 12 candidates submitted documents, after which the city electoral commission began verifying the validity of the signatures.
Sławomir Mentzen, one of Confederation’s leaders, said that more than 2,000 signatories had provided their actual residential address instead of their official registration address. He called the situation a “disgrace” and a “catastrophe,” while describing the signature-collection rules as “absurd.” Mentzen acknowledged that Bochenek’s campaign team should have complied with those rules more carefully.
Mentzen announced Bochenek’s dismissal from the post of head of the Krakow structures of the New Hope party, which is part of Confederation. The party also established a commission to identify those responsible for the situation. Bochenek himself said that he had expected a sufficient reserve of signatures, as he submitted nearly 5,000.
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Other candidates
Other participants in the campaign also faced problems collecting signatures. More than 3,000 signatures of independent candidate Łukasz Gibała were deemed invalid because the word “Krakow” was missing from the form. His team collected an additional 9,000 signatures in three days.
Independent candidates Marian Banaś, Stanisław Kułach and Marta Ratuszyńska also failed to collect a sufficient number of signatures. They exercised their right to appeal the commission’s decision to refuse registration. As of the source’s publication, the commission had approved six candidacies, including those of Gibała, Monika Piątkowska, Michał Drewnicki, Aleksandra Owca and Michał Klimek.
Voting in September
Krakow’s mayoral election is being held after the previous mayor, Aleksander Miszalski, was recalled from office in a referendum earlier this year. The first round is scheduled for September 27. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a second round between the two leading contenders will be held on October 11.
A poll conducted by Opinia24 for Polityka Insight two weeks earlier showed 25.2% support for Gibała, 15.3% for Piątkowska and 8.7% for Daria Gosek-Popiołek. Bochenek ranked sixth with 3.2%.
