Criminal law regulations in electoral law ensure the protection of the secrecy of voting in elections to the office of the President of the Republic of Poland in 2020

Under § 2 of the Decision of the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of 5 February 2020 on ordering the election of the President of the Republic of Poland27, the date of the election was set for Sunday, 10 May 10 2020. However, under § 1 of the Regulation of the Minister of Health of March 20, 2020, “in the period from 20 March 2020 until further notice, an epidemic is announced in the territory of the Republic of Poland in connection with SARS-CoV-2 virus infections”28. Thus, the state of the epidemic covered the previously appointed date of voting in the elections ordered based on the earlier decision of February 5, 2020. In these circumstances, the legislator decided to pass the episodic law. Under Art. 2 clauses 1 of the Act of 6 April 2020 on Special Rules for Holding General Elections of the President of the Republic of Poland ordered in 202029, “elections for the President of the Republic of Poland ordered in 2020 will be conducted only by postal voting”. This study aims to analyse the problem of the protection of electoral rights in Poland during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has become a priority to characterize the episodic Act of 6 April 2020 in the field of criminal law protection of the correctness of the conduct of correspondence voting, resulting from the pandemic threat, and to verify the adopted institutions with the postulates previously reported by the doctrine of law and court jurisprudence about the elements that construct them. The implementation of the right to criminal law protection of voting under the Act of 6 April 2020 raises reservations in the event of a pandemic. However, these conclusions are only theoretical. The legal regulation analysed in this study has not been implemented because the prohibited acts specified in Art. 18 of the Act of 6 April 2020 were repealed by the Act of 2 June 2020 on the Special Rules for the Organization of General Elections for the President of the Republic of Poland ordered in 2020 with the possibility of voting by post.