Politicians are making one last dash around council districts, constituencies and the country in the final day of campaigning before the local government elections on Sunday.

At midnight, ‘election silence’ will be called by the National Electoral Commission, whereby all political advertising and speech making must stop until polling stations close on Sunday evening.

Leader of the Law and Justice party (PiS) Jaroslaw Kaczynski has been the most active throughout the campaign, travelling the country criticising the government and promising local government reform.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been claiming three years of success by his Civic Platform (PO) government.

Waldemar Pawlak, leader of the junior coalition partner, the Polish Peasant’s Party (PSL), has been promising free internet access for all and leader of the opposition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) has been calling for an end to aggression in Polish politics, promoting, instead, the ‘politics with a smile’.

The campaign has cost Civic Platform an estimated 35 million zloty (eight million euros) Law and Justice and Polish Peasant’s Party eight million and SLD four million zloty - money which comes from the state budget.

Battleground

The fiercest battles have occurred in the contests for president of the larger cities. Incumbent president of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (Civic Platform) looks set to win again in the capital, and the SLD’s Jacek Majchrowski is favourite in opinion polls to keep control of Krakow.

Two independents, Jacek Karnowski and Wojciech Fulek are neck-and-neck in the race to become president of Sopot on the Baltic coast.

Opinion polls have pointed to major losses being inflicted on the Law and Justice party on Sunday, with a loss of half of their support and the prospect of being in control of only one city, Radom, in the centre of the country.

The first round on 21 November will be followed by a second round two weeks later. Voters will be able to choose from more than 2,000 candidates for president, mayor and governor and more than 50,000 local councillors at various levels of administration. (pg)

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Thenews.pl will have full coverage of the exit polls and early results after polling stations close at 22.00 CET on Sunday night.