Biznes Fakty
Penalty for Polish Post in connection with envelope elections
The President of the Personal Data Protection Office has levied a fine of PLN 27 million on Poczta Polska and PLN 100,000 on the then Minister of Digital Affairs in relation to the organization of envelope elections, as announced by the office’s president, Mirosław Wróblewski, on Tuesday.
At Tuesday’s conference held at the Office for Personal Data Protection, Wróblewski revealed that the fine imposed on Poczta Polska represents the largest penalty ever issued by a supervisory authority in Poland. The fine for the Minister of Digital Affairs is also the highest statutory penalty applicable to public sector entities.
– The unauthorized disclosure of personal data from the PESEL registry and its processing by Poczta Polska posed a threat to the proper execution of the rights accorded to citizens under the constitution – clarified the president of the UODO.
Envelope elections
In the spring of 2020, amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, then Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki directed Poczta Polska to undertake the necessary steps to prepare for and conduct the presidential elections, which were to be held exclusively by mail on May 10, 2020, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The law governing postal voting came into effect on May 9, 2020. Meanwhile, on April 16, 2020, Morawiecki issued two decrees: one to Poczta Polska, instructing the Polish State Security Printing Works to organize the presidential elections via mail, and another to the National Security Printing Works, ordering the printing of ballots and other essential documents for the electoral process.
On April 22, 2020, the then Minister of Digital Affairs, Marek Zagórski, granted Poczta Polska access to personal data from the PESEL register of Polish citizens who turned 18 on May 10, 2020, and reside in Poland.
Ultimately, the elections did not take place on May 10. On that day, the National Electoral Commission issued a resolution stating that „there was no possibility of voting for candidates,” and that this situation is equivalent in its consequences to the absence of candidates as outlined in Article 293 of the Electoral Code. The elections were ultimately held on June 28, with voting occurring at polling stations.
In September 2020, the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw ruled that Prime Minister Morawiecki’s directive requiring Poczta Polska to prepare for presidential elections via postal voting was a significant violation of the law. The court determined that Morawiecki’s decision contravened the Constitution, the Electoral Code, the Act on the Council of Ministers, and the Code of Administrative Procedure. The Provincial Administrative Court concluded that neither the Constitution nor any other legislation grants the Prime Minister the authority to organize general elections. This ruling became final at the end of June 2024 after the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the cassation appeals against it.
