Voting Age in Poland

Polish citizens can vote at 18, in every election. But whether you can vote depends on more than your age.

That 18 covers every Polish election: presidential, parliamentary, local government, and European Parliament. It comes from Article 62 of the Constitution¹ and is run in practice by the Electoral Code (Kodeks wyborczy), passed in 2011 and consolidated in 2025.² Eighteen is also the civil age of majority in Poland, so the right to vote arrives with full adult legal status. For everything else that changes at 18, see age of majority in Poland.

Who Can Vote in Poland

Three groups, three different answers. Polish citizens vote in everything. EU citizens who live in a Polish commune vote in local commune elections and European Parliament elections. Non-EU foreigners cannot vote in any Polish election.

A Polish citizen aged 18 or older votes in all of it: president, Sejm, Senate, commune, county, region, and European Parliament. A court can take that right away. Under Article 62(2) of the Constitution, a person who has been legally incapacitated or stripped of public or electoral rights by a court judgment cannot vote, whatever their age.¹

EU citizens who live in a Polish commune get a narrower set. They can vote for that commune’s council and mayor, and in European Parliament elections. They cannot vote in county or regional elections, and they cannot vote in any national election. To do it, an EU citizen registers on part B of the commune’s permanent voter roll. The mayor has 5 days to process the application, and there is no cut-off fixed to the election calendar, so apply early rather than in the last week before a vote.³

An EU citizen can also run, but only for the commune council. Not for mayor, not for the Sejm, the Senate, or the presidency.⁴

Non-EU foreigners cannot vote in any Polish election. A residence permit, a job, taxes, and years lived in the country change nothing. The right is tied to citizenship.

UK nationals are the exception. After Brexit, UK citizens lost their EU-citizen status and with it the right to vote in European Parliament elections in Poland. But local voting rights survived. A bilateral treaty signed by Poland and the UK on 29 May 2020, ratified later that year, lets UK nationals legally resident in Poland vote in and stand for gmina (commune) council elections and vote for mayor, on the same terms as EU citizens.⁵ They cannot stand for mayor, and they cannot vote in county or regional elections or in any national election. So a UK national living in Poland is not in the same position as other non-EU foreigners.

One more time, because it gets misreported: no one under 18 can vote in any Polish election. Not in local elections, not anywhere. If you have read that 16 or 15-year-olds can already vote in Polish municipal elections, that is wrong. A proposal to lower the age to 16 exists, and it is covered below, but it is not the law.

How Poles Vote From Abroad

If you are a Polish citizen living abroad, you vote at your consulate, and you do not need to fly home. The catch is the registration deadline.

1. Confirm you can vote. You need to be a Polish citizen, 18 or older, with a valid Polish passport or ID card. If your citizenship still needs confirming, start with the guides.
2. Register on the consul’s voter list (spis wyborców) kept by the consul for the district where you live. You can apply online through the gov.pl e-services connected to the Central Voter Registry (Centralny Rejestr Wyborców), the national register introduced by the 2023 amendments to the Electoral Code.⁶
3. Check there is a polling station near you. A consular polling district abroad needs at least 15 registered voters,² and consuls announce the districts no later than 21 days before election day.⁷
4. Vote in person at the consular polling station. Postal voting is not available from abroad. The Electoral Code excludes it in polling districts created abroad,⁸ and a 2025 attempt to introduce universal postal voting, including for voters abroad, was vetoed by President Nawrocki.⁹ Plan to vote in person.
5. If you will be inside Poland but away from your home commune on election day, get a certificate of the right to vote (zaświadczenie o prawie do głosowania) no later than the third day before the vote. It lets you cast a ballot at any polling station in the country.⁸

The deadline is the trap. For the 2025 presidential runoff on 1 June, the cut-off to register abroad fell on the Tuesday before. Miss it and there is no same-day fix at the consulate. Register the moment an election is called.

Age Limits to Run for Office

The minimum age to run climbs with the office. You can vote at 18, but you cannot run for president until you are 35.

These ages come from the Constitution (Articles 62, 99, and 127) and the Electoral Code (Article 11).²¹⁰ The mayor’s office trips people up: you must be 25 and a Polish citizen, but you do not need to live in the place you want to run. EU citizens resident in Poland can stand for office too, but only for a commune council, never for mayor or any national seat.

Why 35 for the president? Poland sits at the high end of the scale. The United States and several other countries also set 35, but plenty go lower; France and Finland let an 18-year-old run for head of state. The number is a constitutional choice, not a measure of competence.

What 18 Unlocks at the Ballot Box

At 18, a Polish citizen can vote in every election in the country. The same birthday brings full civil legal majority, the point at which you can sign contracts and act for yourself in law. Voting is one of many rights that switch on at 18; for the full set, see age of majority in Poland. Other thresholds sit at different ages and have their own pages: driving, drinking, smoking, and the age of consent.

The Debate Over Lowering the Voting Age to 16

There is an active push to lower the voting age to 16, but as of 2026 it has not happened, and no one under 18 can vote.

The most visible advocate is Szymon Hołownia, who founded Poland 2050 and was Marshal of the Sejm from 2023 to 2025 (he is now a Deputy Marshal).¹¹¹² He has championed it publicly since 2023.¹³ The arguments for it run along a few lines: pull young people into democratic life earlier, give a voice to the generation that lives longest with decisions on issues like climate, and offset a demographic tilt. Poland’s electorate is aging, so the median voter keeps getting older and the preferences of older voters carry more weight at the ballot box. The underlying age structure is on the population page.

The case against is blunter. Critics say 16-year-olds lack the stake and settled judgment of adult voters, and the idea has skeptics even among people sympathetic to electoral reform; a Do Rzeczy columnist called it one of the weakest demands on the table.

Here is why it has gone nowhere, whoever wins the argument. The voting age lives in Article 62 of the Constitution, and that article covers every election. Changing it means a constitutional amendment: a two-thirds majority in the Sejm and an absolute majority in the Senate.¹⁴ The current coalition does not hold those numbers. The single exception is the European Parliament voting age, which could in theory be lowered by an ordinary statute.¹

The demand is not new. The Freedom Union floated it for the 2003 EU-accession referendum, Civic Platform proposed it for local elections in 2010, Twój Ruch wanted it for all elections in 2013, and Hołownia has carried it since 2023. None of it changed the law. As of 2026, the voting age is 18, and 16-year-olds cannot vote in any Polish election.

History of the Voting Age in Poland

Poland set its voting age at 21 in 1918, lowered it to 18 in 1952, and has kept it there since.

The 1918 decree did something rare for its time. It enfranchised women and men together, which put Poland among the first countries in Europe to give women the vote on equal terms.¹⁵ The 1952 cut to 18 was also early: before the Second World War almost every country set the bar at 21 or higher, and most Western democracies only lowered it from 21 to 18 during the 1960s and 1970s.

How Often Poland Votes

Poland holds its elections on staggered cycles, and there is no general election in 2026.

The current president is Karol Nawrocki, sworn in in August 2025.¹⁸ The next vote on the calendar is the 2027 parliamentary election.

Common Questions

What is the voting age in Poland?

18. It applies to every election: presidential, parliamentary, local government, and European Parliament. The age is set by Article 62 of the Constitution.¹

Can foreigners vote in Poland?

Some can, most cannot. EU citizens who live in a Polish commune can vote in that commune’s local elections and in European Parliament elections. Non-EU foreigners cannot vote in any Polish election.

Can EU citizens vote in Polish elections?

Yes, but only in two of them: local commune elections (council and mayor) and European Parliament elections, and only in the commune where they live. They cannot vote in county or regional elections or in any national election, and they register on part B of the commune’s voter roll.⁴

Can a non-EU foreigner vote in Poland?

No. The right to vote is tied to Polish citizenship. A residence permit, length of stay, or tax record does not change that for a non-EU national.

Can UK citizens vote in Polish local elections after Brexit?

Yes, in commune elections. After Brexit, UK nationals lost their EU-citizen status and their European Parliament vote in Poland, but a 2020 Poland–UK bilateral treaty preserved local voting rights. UK nationals legally resident in Poland can vote in and stand for gmina (commune) council elections and vote for mayor, like EU citizens. They cannot vote in county or regional elections or in any national election.⁵

How do I vote from abroad as a Polish citizen?

Register with the consul for the area where you live, then vote in person at a consular polling station. You apply online through the gov.pl e-services linked to the Central Voter Registry, and you do not need to return to Poland.⁶

What’s the deadline to register to vote from abroad?

A few days before the election, and it is strict. For the 2025 presidential runoff on 1 June, the cut-off was the Tuesday before. Register as soon as the election is announced, because there is no same-day registration at the consulate.

Do I need a PESEL or local registration (zameldowanie) to vote?

You need to be in the voter registry, not registered at any particular address. As a Polish citizen you are entered in the Central Voter Registry, and your zameldowanie (permanent address registration) only sets your default polling station. If you live abroad or away from that address, you register with a consul or get a certificate to vote elsewhere.

How old do you have to be to run for president of Poland?

35. You also need 100,000 valid supporting signatures to get on the ballot, and a president can serve at most two terms. The age comes from Article 127 of the Constitution.¹⁰

What’s the minimum age to be an MP, senator, mayor, or councillor?

21 for a Sejm deputy, 30 for a senator, 25 for a mayor, and 18 for a councillor. A mayoral candidate must be a Polish citizen but does not have to live in the commune, while a commune councillor must reside there.²

Can 16-year-olds vote in Poland?

No. The voting age is 18 for every election, including local ones. Claims that 16 or 15-year-olds can vote in Polish municipal elections are false. A proposal to lower the age to 16 exists, but it has not been enacted.

Is Poland going to lower the voting age to 16?

Not in the near term. Lowering it needs a constitutional amendment, since Article 62 sets 18 for all elections, and that requires a two-thirds majority in the Sejm plus an absolute majority in the Senate. The current coalition does not have those numbers, though the idea stays on the political agenda.¹⁴

Why is the voting age 18 in Poland?

Because the 1952 PRL Constitution lowered it from 21 to 18, and the current 1997 Constitution kept it there. 18 is also the civil age of majority, so voting rights line up with full adult legal status.

When did Poland lower the voting age from 21 to 18?

In 1952, under the PRL Constitution. The voting age had been 21 since the 1918 decree that introduced universal suffrage.

How often are elections held in Poland?

On staggered cycles: the president every 5 years, the Sejm and Senate every 4 years, local government every 5 years, and the European Parliament every 5 years. There is no general election in 2026.

When is the next election in Poland?

The parliamentary election in fall 2027. Local and European Parliament elections follow in 2029, and the next presidential election is in 2030.

Who is the current president of Poland?

Karol Nawrocki, sworn in in August 2025. He won the 1 June 2025 runoff, and his term runs to 2030.¹⁸

Is voting compulsory in Poland?

No. Voting is a right, not a legal obligation, and there is no penalty for not voting.¹⁹