On the last day of campaigning in the second round of local elections, to be staged on Sunday, an opinion poll finds that Civic Platform party and independent mayoral and presidential candidates will secure control of most of the country.

Civic Platform candidates won outright in the first round of local elections on 21 November in Warsaw and Gdansk and independents won in Wroclaw and Katowice, gaining over 50 percent of votes cast.

According to the latest opinion poll by SMG KRC, independent Ryszard Grobelny looks set to receive around 62 percent of the vote in Poznan to Civic Platform candidate Grzegorz Ganowicz’s 30 percent.

In Krakow, incumbent president Jacek Majchrowski (independent) has the support of  54 percent of respondents against Stanisław Kracik’s (Civic Platform) 39 percent.

In Lodz, Hanna Zdanowska (Civic Platform) will receive 56 percent of votes, according to the opinion poll, with 34 percent doing to Dariusz Joński from the Democratic Left Alliance.

A tight race is expected in the coastal town of Sopot where in the first round on 21 November, the incumbent Jacek Karnowski (Civic Platform) received 42.5 percent of the vote, to Wojciech Fułek’s  42.39 percent.

The SMG KRC poll was conducted over the telephone for Gazeta Wyborcza between 27 November and 1 December. Between 500 to 700 respondents were interviewed in each city or town researched. (pg)