PiS leads local Polish elections, according to forecasts

Poland's national-conservative opposition party PiS has a slight lead in local elections, according to initial forecasts giving the edge to the party recently booted from power.

Several television stations reported on Sunday, citing forecasts by the Ipsos Institute, that PiS won 33.7% of the vote in the elections for the 16 regional administrations.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk's liberal-conservative Civic Coalition is set to come in a close second with 31.9%, achieving a major success in the capital Warsaw: Incumbent mayor Rafal Trzaskowski looks set to be returned to office in the first round of voting with 59.9% of the vote.

"Here is the hero of today," Tusk said of Trzaskowski on election night. In the 2020 presidential election, the 52-year-old Trzaskowski was only narrowly defeated by incumbent Andrzej Duda. He has ambitions to run again in next year's presidential election.

In the port city of Gdansk, Mayor Alexandra Dulkiewicz from Tusk's party also won re-election in the first round with 62.3% of the vote.

In several major cities, including Krakow and Wroclaw, a run-off election on April 21 is still to be held to decide who will hold the office of mayor.

The PiS, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023, scored points in the Catholic-dominated east and south of the country.

According to the forecasts, 13.5% of the votes in the regional elections went to the Christian-conservative Third Way. The left-wing alliance Lewica ended up with 6.8%. Both parties form the governing coalition at national level with Tusk's Civic Platform. The far-right Konfederacja received 7.5% of the vote.

The 29 million eligible voters decided on the mayors of all municipalities and cities. They also elected the members of all 16 regional assemblies, 380 district councillors and 2,477 local councillors.

The official final results are not expected until the next few days.