Move FM Global News

WARSAW, Poland: On April 21, mayors were chosen in hundreds of cities and towns in Poland where no candidates won outright majorities in the first round of local elections held on April 7.

Mayors were chosen in 748 areas, including in the cities of Krakow, Poznan, Rzeszow, and Wroclaw, where no single candidate won at least 50 percent of the vote during the first round two weeks ago.

No results were announced immediately even after exit polls were released after voting ended the same evening.

In the historic city of Krakow, the exit poll had two candidates within the margin of error, and the result could not be called.

The local and regional elections were viewed as a test for Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European Union government after it won the national election four months ago.

Tusk’s socially liberal Civic Coalition experienced success in larger cities, including the capital, Warsaw, where his party’s candidate, Rafa Trzaskowski, was re-elected as mayor two weeks ago.

However, his party failed to win a decisive overall victory, and the main opposition, the conservative Law and Justice, which was in power from 2015-2023, won a higher proportion of votes in provincial assemblies and rural areas, especially in eastern Poland.

In the provincial assembly election, Law and Justice received 34.3 percent of the votes nationwide, and Tusks’ Civic Coalition received 30.6 percent.