Independent/ nonpartisan

The thing is seemingly simple – we assign political membership to those people who formally belong to a party. This, however, raises doubts over some serious issues. For example, what to do with:

• nonpartisan ministers and high – ranking officials of particular cabinets
• formal nonpartisan members supported by specific parties
• incumbent officials supported by political parties
• last but not least, those politicians who have been excluded form their parties who still publicly identify themselves with their political environment?

In the face of the dilemma, we acknowledge the general rule which says that independence isn’t equal to impartiality or neutrality. Independence relates to the lack of formal commitment to a public representation of a party agenda. In other words, independent people are those individuals who are perceived to be formally disinterested.

That is the reason why we recognize ministers and high – ranking officials of particular governments, candidates in elections (names on slates of candidates), as well as ex – politicians (as long as they pledge loyalty) as representatives of particular groups.

The issue gets a bit more complicated with the incumbent officials (working for divers non – government offices and programs) who have been supported by political parties. In this case – insofar as independence is required or guaranteed for the position – we assign the “nonpartisan” category. There is, however, an exception to this rule, which is explained below.

The office of president

Despite the required formal independence, all presidents of the third and fourth Polish Republic have been closely linked to their political camps. That is why we recognize the environment of the consecutive presidential offices as representatives of those parties which the incumbent president belonged to.