Wpływ pandemii COVID-19 na realizację samorządu przez obywateli na przykładzie wyborów i referendów w trakcie kadencji w Polsce

Abstract

The article is an attempt to estimate the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic on the course of local elections and referenda in Poland. All election processes (i.e. supplementary, re-election and early elections) as well as local referenda that took place from the last local government election in October 2018 until May 15, 2021, i.e. until the formal lifting of the state of the epidemic in Poland, were taken into account. The authors are trying to check to what extent the pandemic limited the freedom to implement the idea of self-government among the inhabitants, how much longer was the waiting period for the successors of those local government officials who for some reason lost their seats, and how much more difficult it was for the inhabitants to hold referendums.