Territorial self-government is formed by the local community and has the right and ability to govern and manage a fundamental part of public affairs in its interest and on its own responsibility. For this reason the territorial government is often called the „little fatherland”.

The implementation of The Fundamental Triple Level Territorial Country Division Act of July 24th 1998 established on January 1st 1999, created poviats and 16 self-governmental voivodeships, apart from the already existing gminas.

The self-governed voivodeship is a territorial self-government unit formed by law by voivodeship inhabitants. It is the largest fundamental unit of the territorial country division functioning to execute public administration. The self-government of the voivodeship executes public tasks within a given voivodeship that have not been reserved by law for organs of government administration. The self-government of the voivodeship is neither superior to nor supervisory for the self-government of poviats or the self-government of gminas and so it does not intervene in attributions of poviat or gmina. Therefore, the self-government of voivodeship organs, such as boards or sejmiks, are not superior to organs of poviats or gminas, and do not supervise these self-governments. Voivodeships have legal status, as well as legal and judicial powers, thus they can perform as a party in civil lawsuits. The board, as an executive organ of a voivodeship, is authorized to perform legal acts on behalf of the voivodeship.

Organs of self-government of the voivodeship are:

- Sejmik of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, composed of 30 councilors elected in a direct election. Its term of office lasts four years, counting from the election day. The election is conducted by the terms of electoral law of the Gmina Council, Poviat Council and Sejmik of the voivodeship. The Sejmik election is conducted by the terms of proportional electoral law.

- The Podlaskie Voivodeship Board, composed of 5 members.

Sejmik (Regional Council)

The Sejmik is the legislative and supervisory organ of a voivodeship. It is headed by president of the sejmik and two vice-presidents elected from among councilors. The President of the sejmik organizes sejmik work and conducts its conferences. He has no authority to externally represent the voivodeship.

The Sejmik of the voivodeship meets for sessions convened by the President, at least on a quarterly basis. The Sejmik of the voivodeship can create, from its members, standing and summary commissions to execute particular tasks and acts. The Sejmik executes its legislative tasks through passing resolutions.

Voivodeship Board

The Voivodeship Board is the executive organ of a voivodeship. The Podlaskie Voivodeship Board consists of: the Podlaskie Voivodeship Marshal, two Podlaskie Voivodeship Vice-Marshals and two Podlaskie Voivideship Board members. The Voivodeship Marshal is elected by the Sejmik from among councilors by an absolute majority. On the Marshal’s motion, the Sejmik elects the remaining Board members. The Board is a collective organ. It fulfills its duties mainly by passing resolutions. The Board is authorized to perform self-governmental tasks that have not been reserved for the Sejmik of the voivodeship or for self-governmental administration units of the voivodeship.

Podlaskie Voivodeship Marshal’s  Office

The Voivodeship Board performs its task with the help of the Marshals Office, self-governmental administration units of the voivodeship and corporate bodies of the voivodeship. The Viovodeship Marshal is the head of the Office and also official supervisor of officials and managers of self-governmental administration units of the voivodeship. The Marshal organizes the work of The Voivodeship Board and The Voivodeship Marshal’s Office, administers current affairs and represents the voivodeship externally. In other words, The Voivodeship Marshal, as representative of a self-governed community consisting of all the voivodeship inhabitants, is like the master, or rather, host of the voivodeship.