Province
and county
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On July 18, 1998, the Sejm, which is the lower house of Polish Parliament, approved legislation transforming Poland's 49 provinces into 16 new ones, a process which is part of an administrative reform. The Sejm voted 326-45-41 for the measure, one of many in a package of legislation aimed at doing away with the communist era administration and shifting power to local governments. On July 27, 1998, President Aleksander Kwasniewski signed into law a bill dividing Poland into 16 new provinces. On August 7, 1998, the government decided there will be 308 counties (powiaty) in Poland. A number of cities (65 of them) will have county rights. The decentralization, being a result of territorial reform which will take effect on January 1, 1999, has broad support. These decisions ended the argument concerning administrative reform; and therefore the no more comments on these pages. |
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