Kukiz using internet to fund campaign

Kukiz won about 20 percent of the presidential vote in May’s election, coming in third behind the eventual second round winner Law and Justice’s (PiS) Andrzej Duda and incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski of the ruling Civic Platform (PO) party.

He has since said he plans to start a movement that will fight to change Poland’s proportional representation-based voting system. Kukiz believes a first past the past single constituency system would help reduce centralised party placements and reinvigorate local democracy.

His campaign to raise cash started in September 2014, with the website zmieleni.pl, which was set up after PO initially rejected Kukiz’s electoral change proposals. It reportedly got several hundred thousand clicks. The polakpotrafi.pl website and efektjow.pl are along similar lines.

President Komorowski promised a referendum on the issue after a poor showing in the May election first round and the referendum is exepcted in the next few weeks.

“We have a big community, which is why we expected to make to bring in the minimum PLN 7,000 and maybe a bit more,” Patryk Hałaczkiewicz, head of the Kukiz election campaign, said.

The KBW National Election Bureau has said a referendum on single-mandate constituencies and other proposed issues put forward by Komorowski would cost PLN 100 million to stage. (jh)