Guernsey Press

Polish voters choose mayors in hundreds of cities in run-off election

Mayors were to be chosen in a total of 748 places, including in the cities of Krakow, Poznan, Rzeszow and Wroclaw.

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Polish voters chose mayors in hundreds of cities and towns where no candidate won outright in the first round of the country’s local elections two weeks ago.

Mayors were chosen in a total of 748 places, including in the cities of Krakow, Poznan, Rzeszow and Wroclaw.

Poland Elections
The local and regional elections are being seen as a test for the pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)

Exit polls were released after voting ended on Sunday evening, but there were no results announced immediately.

In Krakow, with one of the most closely watched races, the exit poll put the two candidates within the margin of error and the race could not be called.

The local and regional elections are being viewed as a test for the pro-European Union government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk four months after it took power at national level.

Poland Local Elections
Campaign posters promote candidates as Poles vote in local and regional elections in Lomianki, near Warsaw (Czarek Sokolowski/AP)

However, Mr Tusk failed to win a decisive victory overall.

The main opposition party, Law and Justice, which held power at national level from 2015-23, won a greater percentage of votes in the provincial assemblies.

Mr Tusk’s socially liberal Civic Coalition has strong support in cities, while Law and Justice has a stronger base in conservative rural areas, particularly in eastern Poland.

In the election of the provincial assemblies, Law and Justice obtained 34.3% of the votes nationwide and Mr Tusk’s Civic Coalition received 30.6%.

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