In Poland’s most important electoral test since a bloc of pro-European Union groups came to power in parliamentary elections late last year, the Euroskeptic PiS party on Sunday gained 33.7 percent of the vote in elections to regional assemblies, according to an exit poll.
The liberal Civic Coalition (KO), led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, came in second with 31.9 percent of the regional assemblies vote, the poll found.
The centre-right Third Way, an electoral alliance of the centrist Poland 2050 grouping and the rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL), came in third on 13.5 percent, according to the survey by pollster Ipsos.
The survey indicated that in the Polish capital, incumbent mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, a leading liberal politician, won a decisive, first-round victory in the race for re-election after securing over half the vote, public broadcaster Polish Radio reported.
Some pre-election surveys had suggested the battle for Warsaw would need to go to a second round. Trzaskowski won 58.9 percent, while his conservative rival Tobiasz Bocheński scored 18.5 percent, according to an exit survey by pollster Ipsos.
Leftist candidate Małgorzata Bejat garnered 15.8 percent, the poll found.
The official elections results were expected to be announced in the days ahead.
More than 29 million Poles were entitled to cast their ballot in the local government elections, state news agency PAP reported.
Turnout at 5 p.m. on Sunday stood at 39.43 percent, officials said, and was more than 2 percentage points lower than in the previous such vote in 2018.
A second round of voting, where needed, will be held on April 21.
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Source: IAR, PAP, TVP Info, TVN24