Researchers from the best academic centres in Poland led by the Institute of Journalism, Media and Social Communication at the Jagiellonian University (UJ) in Krakow and with the technical support of DigiPols Lab from Cyprus University of Technology have launched the Electoral Barometer 2023. It is a free application that allows Polish voters to compare their own political views with the positions of the committees running in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Election Barometer 2023 (https://barometrwyborczy.com) is completely independent from political parties and committees, candidates, and other organisations in terms of content and funding. It is a useful tool not only for the voters themselves, but also for media professionals.

It provides access to a range of valuable information that can be helpful for various types of analysis, comparisons or as an important reference point in the preparation of election material.

The app provides each user with a form of questions to complete. Some of these are standard metric questions, while the main part consists of 28 statements to which one must respond using a simple, dedicated scale. The statements cover issues such as the rule of law, the economy, state governance, ecology, foreign affairs, or social values. The barometer shows the extent to which the user’s views coincide with the positions of the five most popular election committees running in the elections.

The 2023 Election Barometer is part of a system that includes election navigators (Voting Advice Applications), which are applications for positioning one’s own views in the political space in relation to a given election. They operate in many countries, including the Netherlands, Germany and Finland, and were made available in earlier years to citizens voting in local, national or European Parliament elections.

Adrian Andrzejewski