In the first major electoral test for Poland’s new ruling coalition, it was the former ruling PiS party that won most votes in Sunday’s local elections, albeit followed closely by PM Tusk’s Civic Platform.

Despite the expectations of many that Poland’s local elections on Sunday would bring a consolidation of power for the ruling alliance headed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Law and Justice (PiS) still performed the best out of all the parties taking part.

According to exit polls published Monday night, the now-in-opposition PiS party won 33.7 per cent of votes cast in the regional council elections, which best reflect the power balance between the various parties in parliament, followed by Civic Platform with 31.9 per cent and The Third Way (an alliance between the agrarian party PSL and Szymon Holownia’s Poland 2050) with 13.5 per cent.

On Sunday Poles voted in multiple elections: for the regional councils (a country of almost 38 million, Poland is divided into 16 administrative regions), for local councils, and for mayors.

According to exit polls published on Sunday night, Tusk’s Civic Platform was set to win in ten regions and PiS in six – a similar result to the last local elections in 2018, when PiS initially won in six regions but eventually led in eight because of post-electoral negotiations.

Poland uses the D’Hondt method to count mandates for the regional councils, thought to be the least proportional of all proportional methods, meaning the largest parties usually dominate at these levels of government.

Final results may vary from the exit polls and post-electoral alliances could still alter the final victors in some regions.

Emboldened by strong polling in the last few weeks, which gave Civic Platform a lead over PiS for the first time in years, Tusk’s party decided to go it alone in the local elections rather than in an alliance with either of its two partners in the governing coalition. The effect was that PiS was able to defeat the democrats in the parts of the country where it typically enjoys the most support – the rural areas, smaller localities and eastern regions. According to the National Electoral Commission, about 51 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot on Sunday, compared with almost 55 per cent in the previous local elections in 2018 and the huge 72 per cent turnout in the parliamentary election in 2023