Polish Sejm receives petition to overhaul vote‑to‑seat formula

A petition was submitted to the Polish Sejm on 1 June calling for a change to the method used to convert votes into parliamentary seats. The document, addressed to the Commission for Petitions, seeks to amend Article 232 § 1 of the 2011 Electoral Code and replace the long‑standing d'Hondt method with more proportional alternatives such as the Sainte‑Laguë or Hare‑Niemeyer (largest remainder) formulas. The petition argues that the current system may violate constitutional principles of proportionality and national sovereignty, favours larger parties, and can prevent candidates with high local vote totals from gaining a mandate. It also proposes lowering electoral thresholds or introducing compensatory seats, and calls for analysis by the Sejm Office of Analyses and the State Electoral Commission, as well as an opinion from the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe.