• The ombudsman is elected by an act of
Sejm and has to be accepted by the
Senate. • The term of office is five years long and the same person cannot hold the office more than twice. •
Sejm has the right to recall the ombudsman with a 3/5 majority before the end of term.
The ombudsman election and status conflict 2020-2021 In September 2020, the term of office of the incumberent ombudsman (Adam Bodnar) was supposed to expire, but the Sejm and the Senate had not agreed on a successor. This was an unforeseen complication. The Polish law did not provide for an
interim office in case the term. The incumbent Ombudsman thus remained in office, awaiting the appointment of a new one. However, for five months, the two parliament chambers did not succeed to agree on a successor, in spite of several tries. Twice the Sejm (where the parties in government were in majority) voted down the opposition candidate, the lawyer On 15 April 2021 the Polish
Constitutional Tribunal which has been controlled by the governing Law and Justice party almost since it took power in 2015, decided that Bodnar could stay in office as a temporary Ombudsman until a new one was elected, but only for a short time, and that he anyhow must vacate the office after at most three further months. The same day, the Sejm appointed government candidate
Bartłomiej Wróblewski as new ombudsman, to be considered for approval by the Senate (with 240 MPs voting "for", 201 "against", and 11 abstaining). ==List of officeholders==