Election protests the least in 30 years? We check Janusz Korwin-Mikke's post.

Election protests since 1990 have been almost an inseparable element of elections. According to the law every citizen can file such a protest if they believe that irregularities occurred during voting. It is a procedure that almost always causes a stir and numerous comments. This was also the case this time regarding the recent presidential elections. Janusz Korwin-Mikke has spoken out on the matter.

On June 9, 2025, former MP in the Sejm and president of the KORWIN party, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, posted on his X profile a post in which he stated: “Really? 28 election protests? That’s the lowest in 30 years, regarding presidential elections. For comparison – in 2020, there were nearly 6,000. Talking about rigged elections is out of touch with reality.”

Does the number of protests given by Janusz Korwin-Mikke correspond to reality and was it really the lowest in 30 years?

Incomplete data

It is worth noting that Janusz Korwin-Mikke’s post was published on June 9, while the deadline for submitting election protests set by the National Electoral Commission expired only on June 16. Therefore, the politician was relying on partial data. However, it should be emphasized that as of the date of posting the entry, information about 28 submitted protests was consistent with available statistics – such a number was provided to journalists by Monika Drwal from the Supreme Court’s press office.

Current information

Although the deadline for protests has already passed, as of the time of writing this article, i.e., June 17, the Supreme Court still does not have complete data on the final number of submitted applications. As reported to PAP, on Monday, June 16, the court’s spokesperson Aleksander Stępkowski conveyed that, up to that moment, about 3,000 protests were known, noting that not all had yet been registered:

We don’t know how many protests have been received. Of those that have been somehow registered, whether at the reception desk or in the chamber of the Supreme Court, we know about a little over three thousand protests. We also know that there is a bag and several stacks of protests still completely unregistered, so the number of protests received is definitely higher.

Further information was provided by the fact-checking portal Konkret24: “On June 17 at 9:30 a.m., a staff member of the Supreme Court’s press office informed us that 4054 election protests had been registered. Monika Drwal from the Supreme Court’s Press Team informed us via email at 10:23 that there are already 4170.” 

On the afternoon of June 17, Monika Drwal from the Supreme Court’s press team reported to PAP that the number of registered protests increased to 5,100.

Update: On June 18 at 17:47, Monika Drwal from the Supreme Court’s Press Office emailed us that the Supreme Court has registered so far 9,345 election protests.

On June 18 at 6:00 p.m., the Supreme Court announced on the X platform that “Over 30,000 election protests have already been received by the Supreme Court, of which only 9,348 have been registered. This is the highest number of protests reported by voters in 20 years.”

For the Supreme Court staff, it looks like a long, working weekend that was supposed to be free.
Over 30,000 election protests have already been received by the Supreme Court, of which only 9,348 have been registered. This is the highest number of protests reported by voters in 20 years. pic.twitter.com/q1p6rzNb96

— Supreme Court (@SN_RP_) June 18, 2025

Therefore, the information about 28 election protests provided by Janusz Korwin-Mikke referred to the state before the deadline for submitting them and does not reflect the full data.

Protests in presidential elections over the last 30 years

Let’s also pay attention to the further part of the former Confederation MP’s post. What was the number of election protests in previous presidential elections? Hypothetically, if only 28 protests were actually filed, would Korwin-Mikke be correct in claiming that this is the lowest number in 30 years?

Based on data from the Supreme Court (see information below the table), we prepared the following summary:

Year	Number of protests	Winner
2025	> 9000	Karol Nawrocki
2020	5847	Andrzej Duda
2015	58	Andrzej Duda
2010	378	Bronisław Komorowski
2005	51	Lech Kaczyński
2000	96	Aleksander Kwaśniewski
1995	595 thousand	Aleksander Kwaśniewski

Let’s first clarify a certain doubt that may arise in connection with the above data. In 1995, such a large number of protests (595,000) resulted from one of the candidates, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, providing false information about his education. The Supreme Court considered the allegations expressed in these protests to be well-founded, but without affecting the result of the elections. 

Returning to the question we posed earlier – yes, if only 28 protests were actually filed, then Janusz Korwin-Mikke would be correct. Over the past 30 years, the smallest number of protests occurred in 2005: there were 51. However, the comparison in the post was based on incomplete data provided a week before the deadline for submitting protests. Current available data show that the number of protests filed in this year’s elections will most likely be one of the highest in the last thirty years.

Summary

Janusz Korwin-Mikke’s statement was based on incomplete data. If the number of protests had actually been only 28, then it would indeed be the lowest in 30 years. However, this is not the case. As of June 18, the number of registered election protests exceeded 9,000, so the claim that these were elections with the lowest number of protests in 30 years is not confirmed.