Polish voters choose mayors of hundreds of cities in runoff elections

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Polish voters cast their ballots on Sunday to elect mayors of hundreds of towns and villages where no candidate won in the first round of local elections two weeks ago.

< p>Mayors will be chosen from a total of 748 localities, including the cities of Krakow, Poznan, Rzeszow and Wroclaw. These are places where no candidate won at least 50% of the vote in the first round on April 7.

The local and regional elections are seen as a test for the Prime's pro-European government. minister. Minister Donald Tusk four months after taking power nationally.

Tusk's party performed well in major cities, including Warsaw, where his party's candidate Rafał Trzaskowski won easily won re-election as mayor two weeks ago.

However, Tusk failed to achieve a decisive victory overall. The main opposition party, Law and Justice, which held power nationally from 2015 to 2023, won a greater percentage of votes in provincial assemblies.

The socially liberal Civic Coalition of Tusk enjoys strong support in cities while Law and Justice has a stronger base in conservative rural areas, particularly in eastern Poland.

In assembly elections Provincial, Law and Justice received 34.3% of the vote nationwide and the Tusks Civic Coalition received 30.6%. .