Kraków mayoral candidates face signature registration issues

Candidates for the upcoming extraordinary mayoral election in Kraków are facing significant registration hurdles due to formal errors in voter signature sheets.

Łukasz Gibała, a leading candidate, reported that the Municipal Electoral Commission rejected a large portion of his collected signatures. The issue stems from a printing error where the word ‘Kraków’ was omitted from the address field on the forms. Consequently, signatures were deemed invalid if supporters did not manually write the city name. Gibała has appealed to supporters to re-sign the documents before the September 3 deadline to ensure he meets the required 3,000 valid signatures.

Simultaneously, Monika Piątkowska of Koalicja Obywatelska is facing challenges regarding the validity of her support cards. Opponents have questioned whether the forms correctly specify that these are for an extraordinary election, though supporters argue the forms comply with electoral regulations by including the required election date of September 27. The election follows a referendum that led to the removal of the previous mayor, Aleksander Miszalski.