Przyczyny i polityczne skutki wyborów uzupełniających do Senatu RP
Reasons and political consequences of by-elections to the Polish Senate

Summary/Abstract: In the opinion of Polish politicians, by-elections to the Senate of the Republic of Poland have a barometer function, reflecting the political climate in the society. The objective of the present article is to indicate the reasons for and political consequences of mid-term expiry of senators’ mandates. In comparing the research results obtained by analyzing the topic of this article we attempted to answer the following research questions: 1) what factors influence the expiry of senators’ mandates in Poland?; 2) what is voter turnout in these elections, when compared to the ordinary elections to the Polish parliament (Sejm and Senate)? 3) to what extent do the by-elections to the Senate influence the change in its political composition?; 4) do they form a credible barometer of the political climate in the society?The research methods applied (institutional-legal, statistical, and comparative) allowed us to formulate our conclusion. So far, 44 senators’ mandates (4.9%) have expired. The main reasons for that have been death (36.4%), appointment to high public offices (22.8%), or being elected EMP (15.9%). The Senate by-elections have been conducted 37 times, and they have usually generated limited interest of voters (usually around 7%). Nevertheless, in several cases their results signalled the upcoming political change (by-elections in the IV, V and VIII terms) or the continuation of the existing political arrangement (by-elections in the VI term of office). The general efficiency of this forecast is rather elusive; it turned out to be correct in four out of seven terms of Senate.

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