Gov't party takes most mayoral seats in Poland's biggest cities
Candidates backed by the ruling coalition's backbone party Civic Coalition (KO) came first after Sunday's local elections in most of Poland's largest cities which seem to remain out of reach of Law and Justice (PiS), the main opposition party.
Rafal Trzaskowski, a Civic Coalition (KO) candidate, was reelected Warsaw mayor on Sunday having won 57.41 percent of the vote. His main rival, Tobiasz Bochenski, backed by PiS, got 23.10 percent of the vote, the National Electoral Commission (PKW) announced on Monday afternoon.
Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, the incumbent mayor of the coastal city of Gdansk, who was also backed by KO, secured a majority with 57.95 percent of the vote and was re-elected to the post.
Hanna Zdanowska, a KO candidate, running for mayor of the central city of Lodz for the fourth time, was re-elected to the post having won 59.30 percent of the vote. Her main rival, Agnieszka Wojciechowska van Heukelom, backed by PiS, got 22.56 percent of the vote.
Aleksander Miszalski, a KO MP, came first in Krakow, southern Poland, with 37 percent of the vote but will have to go to a run-off vote against an independent city activist and a former Civic Platform (PO) MP, Lukasz Gibala, who was supported by 27 percent of Krakow residents.
Jacek Sutryk, the independent mayor of the western city of Wroclaw, faces a run-off vote with Izabela Bodnar, a Third Way MP. Sutryk got 34.33 percent of the vote while Bodnar took 29.80 percent, PKW reported.
Jacek Jaskowiak, the mayor of the western city of Poznan, also faces a run-off vote with a PiS candidate, Zbigniew Czerwinski. Jaskowiak won 43.74 percent of the vote while Czerwinski was supported by 20.30 percent, PKW said. (PAP)
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