The request for a referendum to remove Gliwice mayor Katarzyna Kuczyńska-Budka has been rejected because it fell short of the required number of valid signatures. The discovery of 245 PESEL identification numbers belonging to deceased people means the case now extends beyond a failed petition: the election commissioner said he would notify prosecutors.
The Katowice branch of the National Electoral Office announced the rejection on 13 November. According to the election commissioner, the referendum group submitted 18,100 signatures, of which 11,000 were accepted as valid. At least 12,700 valid signatures from eligible local voters were required to call the referendum.
The commissioner found 7,100 signatures invalid, a 39% error rate. The most common problems were a different or incomplete address, lack of voting rights in the relevant area, duplicate support, an incorrect, incomplete or illegible PESEL number, and no voter recorded in the Central Register of Voters.
The most serious issue concerns 245 PESEL numbers of deceased people, identified during checks of numbers absent from the register. The commissioner said the number of people who had died before the date of their purported support pointed to signature collection inconsistent with Poland’s local-referendum law. He said he would submit a notice to prosecutors over a reasonable suspicion of an offence.
That warrants scrutiny, but a prosecutor notification does not establish criminal responsibility for any person or identify who was responsible for the entries. The organisers said they would challenge the commissioner’s decision and had already raised objections during the verification process. TVN24’s report does not set out their legal arguments. The referendum dispute may therefore continue, but there is currently no basis to hold the vote.
Sources
- TVN24 · Source date: 2026-11-13
Independent editorial content. WUA is not affiliated with any political party. 2026-11-13