## Facts

- A political party’s statute included a rule allowing the party chairman to appoint and dismiss regional chairmen, who were treated as organs of party authority under the statute.
- The Warsaw Regional Court, which maintains the register of political parties, reviewed the party’s statute under the 1997 Political Parties Act and developed doubts about the rule’s constitutionality.
- The court referred a question to the Constitutional Tribunal under statutory provisions permitting referrals when a court doubts whether a party statute complies with constitutional and statutory requirements of internal democracy.
- The referring court argued that concentrating appointment and removal power in the chairman conflicted with the Constitution’s requirement that political parties’ methods of operation be democratic.
- The Prosecutor General participated in the proceeding.
- The Tribunal considered the case in plenary composition as an abstract review of the challenged provision, not as an appeal from contentious litigation.

## Issues

1. Whether the statutory mechanism allowing ordinary courts to refer political party statutes for constitutional review remained valid after the 1997 Constitution entered into force and was consistent with the Tribunal’s constitutionally assigned jurisdiction.
2. Whether a party statute provision authorizing the party chairman to appoint and dismiss regional chairmen violates the constitutional requirement that political parties’ methods of operation be democratic.

## Decision

- The Tribunal held it had jurisdiction and that the statutory referral mechanism remained in force to the extent not inconsistent with the Constitution.
- The Tribunal held the challenged party-statute provision, insofar as it concerned appointment and dismissal of regional chairmen, was consistent with the constitutional requirement that political parties operate by democratic methods.
- The judgment was unanimous.

## Legal Principles

- Pre-constitution statutes generally remain binding after a new constitution takes effect unless they conflict with the new constitution.
- A statutory referral procedure can be constitutionally valid if it operates within, and does not displace, the constitutional court’s jurisdiction to review normative acts for conformity with the constitution.
- The constitutional requirement that political parties’ methods of operation be democratic is a flexible standard that permits multiple internal governance arrangements.
- Internal party democracy does not require that every party organ at every level be filled solely through elections; centralized appointment powers may be compatible with democratic operation when assessed in the party’s overall statutory structure and accountability mechanisms.

## Conclusion

The Tribunal upheld a political party’s internal rule granting the national chairman authority to appoint and dismiss regional chairmen, holding that constitutional “democratic methods” for party operation allow varied organizational designs and must be evaluated in context rather than by rigid formal requirements.


Christian Democracy Party Case (Pp 1/99) (Pol. Const. Trib. 2000)