Voivodeship sejmik

A voivodeship sejmik is a regional council composed of elected

Election

An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the executive and...

 councillor

Councillor

A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council. Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman...

s in each of the 16 voivodeships

Voivodeships of Poland

The voivodeship or province has been a high-level administrative subdivision of Poland since the 14th century. Pursuant to the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998, which came into effect on January 1, 1999, sixteen new voivodeships were created...

 (provinces) of Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. Sejmiks are elected for four-year terms. The number of councillors varies, depending on the population: in smaller voivodeships there are 30, while in the most populous (Masovian Voivodeship

Masovian Voivodeship

Masovian Voivodeship is the largest and most populous of the sixteen Polish provinces, or voivodeships, created in 1999. It occupies of...

) there are 51.

The word sejmik is a diminutive of sejm

Sejm

The Sejm is the lower house of the Polish parliament. Each member of Sejm is called Poseł.Before the 20th century, the term "Sejm" referred to the entire three-chamber Polish parliament, comprising the lower house , the upper house and the King. It was commonly termed a three-estate parliament...

, which was historically an assembly of nobles, and is now the name of the lower house of the Polish parliament. For other historical uses of the term, see sejmik

Sejmik

A sejmik was a regional assembly in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and earlier in the Kingdom of Poland. Sejmiks existed until the end of the Commonwealth in 1795 following the partitions of Poland...

.

The members of a sejmik elect a chairman and deputy chairmen from among their number. These may not sit on the voivodeship's executive board. The chairman is responsible for organizing the sejmik's business and presiding over debates.

The sejmik can adopt bylaws on matters concerning a voivodeship which are not reserved for central governmental administration (most of which is managed in the region by the centrally-appointed governor or voivode); such matters include the voivodeship's budget

Budget

A budget is generally a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...

, development strategy, and rules on management of the voivodeship's property. The sejmik elects and holds to account the voivodeship's executive board (zarząd województwa), which is chaired by the voivodeship marshal (marszałek województwa).