National Electoral Commission announces results. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymanski

UPDATE 2 - After counting over 83 percent of ballot papers, Poland’s National Electoral Commission has announced that the ruling Civic Platform won over a third of support nationwide in Sunday’s local government elections. 

In the race for president in Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz is on 52.86 percent, in line with exit polls which suggested that she is the outright winner in the capital without needing a second ballot in two Sunday’s time.

In the Provincial Government elections, Civic Platform (PO) won 31.43 percent of the vote nationwide, with Law and Justice (PiS) on 23.07 percent.

The Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL), Civic Platform’s junior coalition partner, has moved into third place on 15.65 percent, a remarkable result given pre-election opinion poll predictions. The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) received 15.30 percent of votes.  

Another outright winner in the city president elections is Paweł Adamowicz (PO) in Gdansk, where he received 53,74 percent of votes with Law and Justice’s Andrzej Jaworski in second place on 21,84 percent.

With all votes counted in Krakow, the incumbent president Jacek Majchrowski (SLD) received 40,78 percent vote share with Civic Platform’s Stanisław Kracik on 33,69 percent. Because no candidate received a majority of votes cast the top two will go into a run-off on 5 December.

The most emphatic victory came in Wroclaw, with incumbent  Rafał Dutkiewicz  - now an independent but formerly of Civic Platform - securing 71.61 percent of the votes. The nearest challenger was Sławomir Piechota (PO) with just 10.97 percent.

Turnout nationwide was 47,16 percent, high for local elections in Europe.

PiS - Results could have been better

Head of the opposition Law and Justice Parliamentary Club, Mariusz Blaszczak told Polish Radio Monday morning that the results returned in the first round of local elections “could have been better.”

Blaszczak blames the party’s result on the exodus of a number of high-profile members during the local election campaign, including Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, Elzbieta Jakubiak, Pawel Poncyljusz and a number of MEPs associated with the party, including Michal Kaminski.

Meanwhile, sociology professor Henryk Domanski believes that the primary results of the local government elections reflect opinion polls undertaken before the ballot on Sunday.

Commenting on the results returned by the two major runners in the local elections, Domanski told Polish Radio that Law and Justice fared well considering the creation of a new break-away group following the resignation of a number of MPs. According to Domanski, Civic Platform did not receive overwhelming support, although the final results may show a stronger result. (jb/pg)

Thenews.pl will be bringing more news and analysis on the local elections throughout the week, remember to come back to check the latest developments!