Democratic elections in Poland- i.e. how to "kick off the ladder"
Polish Citizen | 20.10.2007 16:25 | World
Postsolidarity movement is widely accussed by liberal forces of having "kicked-off the ladder" for new political forces. In Poland this movement managed to produce fake, illusionist democracy with facade-like freedom of speech, granted only for some groups.
I wanted to do something with politics, to go for elections and so on. This has proven to be an interesting lesson of how Poland actually understands the term democracy. I felt that I could change something being an economist. Well, I participated in elections, byt the media were not presenting Your programme to the people in a normal way. There was no word of Your qualifications, education. No one cared whether You were a complete beatroot or someone with proper academic background. I am sure I was the most competent one in my area- graduate from good quality Western European universities, speaking many foreign languages.
Well, I was expected to provide every citizen in my area- and there were one million people living there, with a flyer detailing my manifesto. There was no free collective leaflet for all the candidates in the area, as in other countries it is the case. Everyone had to provie citizens on its own. It was definitely not cheaper if the state provided political manifestors collectively to everyone, given the amount of labour and fuel costs if dozens of candidates are doing it separately. Over the next month I was visiting every small town in my area and I was putting up my flyers on every wall of fence. It was horribly a lot of work. You had to do it on Your own, otherwise You would go bankrupt.
Guess who won the elections? Those, who have posted the most of posters and flyers on the walls. Plus those who were famous before. It was not possible for a normal candidate to get to the media. Media were allowing only candidates from the large parties to dispute. They have chosen 5 or 6 large parties, and only they were presented in more detail. No small party was allowed anywhere even in the election time. The only exception was the free emission of spots by state-owned radio and television, but, as this was only tv or radio, it was in my opinion not allowing the citizens to compare the parties with one another and to find the best one. There was no such thing as printed book with manifestos of all the parties or candidates available to everyone.The only free thing You could use was Internet.
Then I took a part in another local elections. The media generally were censoring everyone except the large parties. The local media were not presenting Your arguments, and if even, then they were make You looking greedy for power. They were not doing it for the large parties. They were heavily biased in my opinion. And the same thing with the flyers. We had to provide at least 10 thousand households with our flyers. It was a large expense, and our black-and-white flyers were looking poorly compaed to the others. Large parties get funds for their party structures, and they receive millions of zlotys yearly. Small parties have only as much as they gather from their members. Seldom they have more than one thousand zloty for the elections in the whole country. Large 5 parties have dozens of millions (only thy are subsidized from the state budget), let us say that an average large party can have 20- 30 million zlotys for their campaing, whereas a small party can have 2 to 20 thousand zloty. A striking difference between the „established parties”and „other parties”, isn’t it?
Well, I was expected to provide every citizen in my area- and there were one million people living there, with a flyer detailing my manifesto. There was no free collective leaflet for all the candidates in the area, as in other countries it is the case. Everyone had to provie citizens on its own. It was definitely not cheaper if the state provided political manifestors collectively to everyone, given the amount of labour and fuel costs if dozens of candidates are doing it separately. Over the next month I was visiting every small town in my area and I was putting up my flyers on every wall of fence. It was horribly a lot of work. You had to do it on Your own, otherwise You would go bankrupt.
Guess who won the elections? Those, who have posted the most of posters and flyers on the walls. Plus those who were famous before. It was not possible for a normal candidate to get to the media. Media were allowing only candidates from the large parties to dispute. They have chosen 5 or 6 large parties, and only they were presented in more detail. No small party was allowed anywhere even in the election time. The only exception was the free emission of spots by state-owned radio and television, but, as this was only tv or radio, it was in my opinion not allowing the citizens to compare the parties with one another and to find the best one. There was no such thing as printed book with manifestos of all the parties or candidates available to everyone.The only free thing You could use was Internet.
Then I took a part in another local elections. The media generally were censoring everyone except the large parties. The local media were not presenting Your arguments, and if even, then they were make You looking greedy for power. They were not doing it for the large parties. They were heavily biased in my opinion. And the same thing with the flyers. We had to provide at least 10 thousand households with our flyers. It was a large expense, and our black-and-white flyers were looking poorly compaed to the others. Large parties get funds for their party structures, and they receive millions of zlotys yearly. Small parties have only as much as they gather from their members. Seldom they have more than one thousand zloty for the elections in the whole country. Large 5 parties have dozens of millions (only thy are subsidized from the state budget), let us say that an average large party can have 20- 30 million zlotys for their campaing, whereas a small party can have 2 to 20 thousand zloty. A striking difference between the „established parties”and „other parties”, isn’t it?
Polish Citizen