Warsaw mayor loses democratic mandate over technical hitch

Mar 6, 2007, 13:51 GMT

Warsaw - Warsaw's liberal Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz has lost her mandate over a controversial technicality, a Polish regional governor confirmed Wednesday.

Mazowsze regional Governor Jacek Sasin said he had 'extinguished' Gronkiewicz-Waltz's mandate in compliance with legislation requiring elected officials to submit financial statements detailing both their household revenues.

It is alleged Gronkiewicz-Waltz submitted her husband's statement after a mandatory deadline.

Under the legislation, the penalty for late submission is loss of a democratic mandate. Several hundred other locally-elected officials who were allegedly late with their submission risk the same fate.

A spokesperson for Warsaw City Council member quoted Wednesday by Polish Radio said Governor Sasin's decision would most likely be referred to Poland's Supreme Administrative Court.

Governor Sasin made the controversial move Wednesday to axe Gronkiewicz-Waltz after Warsaw City Council refused to so last month.

Gronkiewicz-Waltz previously said she would also file a complaint with the court in response to any attempt to remove her from office.

The former Polish central bank president and member of the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party won a local election held last November in a neck-and-neck race with former prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz of the governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party.

PiS Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has drawn harsh criticism for having insisted that a government-appointed commissioner should replace the duly elected Gronkiewicz-Waltz.

Kaczynski's identical twin brother Lech Kaczynski served as Warsaw mayor prior to winning the presidency in late 2005.

Opposition politicians and independent critics have slammed attempts to oust Gronkiewicz-Waltz as being both unconstitutional and anti-democratic.