Warsaw business journal online - business in poland,warsaw,polish companies,companies database

Warsaw Business Journal Online - business in poland,warsaw,polish companies,companies database Legal Eye: To coalesce or not to coalesce
In light of the impending elections, I've decided it's time to form my own party.
As animal themes are popular, I've settled on "KoT - Koledzy oraz Teolodzy" (or in English, "CaT - Colleagues and Theologians"). Our motto is "you never know when you'll need a friend or a miracle." Well, in truth, the "our" is a little overstated as the membership of this incipient party consists of myself and my daughter, who decided that a cat would make a cute mascot. With our rather small electoral pull (at least for now), we'll need to think about an appropriate coalition.
Before we join a coalition, we must first make our party official. According to Art. 1.1 of the Act of June 27, 1997 on Political Parties, a party is a voluntary organization with the goal of "participating in public life though use of democratic means to influence the formation of state policies and/or exercising public power." To exist officially, it must be registered in the evidentiary register of political parties. Before applying for registration, we need to obtain the signatures of 1,000 Polish citizens over the age of 18. In case you were wondering, we aren't paying anything for the signatures - we're hoping for divine intervention. Given our lack of any platform or even target electorate, we'll need a miracle to even get started.
Skipping blithely along and assuming that we have a political leg to stand on, we might want to think about a coalition. As has been repeatedly demonstrated lately, it's quite easy to enter into (and exit) coalitions. In fact, a coalition is nothing more than an agreement among political parties. When creating an electoral coalition, that agreement must be registered with the State Election Committee. An electoral coalition serves the purpose of proposing a joint slate of candidates for the coalition partners for specific elections. Once in an electoral coalition, your party's candidates can't run on a separate ticket during those elections.
For my party it's too late to think about a coalition for the upcoming elections. The deadline for creating a coalition electoral committee is 50 days prior to the elections. In addition to confluences of grand visions for improving Poland, electoral coalitions can also be inspired by more basic motives, such as state funding. Political parties may receive state funding (ie, our taxes), including a budgetary subsidy to cover operating costs. The budgetary subsidy is of particular interest to coalitions. To be eligible, a party must obtain three percent of the popular vote. A coalition (regardless of the number of parties in it) needs six percent. The coalition partners must specify in the electoral coalition agreement the percentage division amongst themselves of this subsidy. Thus, much smaller parties (like mine) could potentially partner with larger parties by accepting a smaller percentage. Smaller parties, however, should be cautious. Even though the slices of the subsidy pie may differ in size, all coalition partners http://www.wbj.pl/?command=printing&id=38976& (1 of 2)2007-10-15 14:06:38 Warsaw Business Journal Online - business in poland,warsaw,polish companies,companies database are jointly and severally liable for campaign debts. Alas, though, for my dreams of feline-inspired glory, the devil is in the details. You must be at least 18 and a Polish citizen to join a Polish political party. As my daughter is only 10 and I'm not a Polish citizen, neither of us is eligible. However, if you want to take up my undefined cause and great mascot, give me a call. Judith Gliniecki is Of Counsel to Wierzbowski Eversheds; judith.gliniecki@wierzbowski.pl http://www.wbj.pl/?command=printing&id=38976& (2 of 2)2007-10-15 14:06:38

Source: http://www.eversheds.pl/articlesFiles/287_Legal%20Eye_J.Gliniecki_WBJ_15.10.2007.pdf