Poland holds local elections in test for PM Tusk’s coalition government

About 190,000 registered candidates running for local government positions, including mayors and councillors.

Poles are set to vote in local elections in the first test for the coalition government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk nearly four months since it took power.

Voters on Sunday will elect mayors as well as members of municipal councils and provincial assemblies, with nearly 190,000 registered candidates running for local government positions in the Central European nation of 38 million people.

Tusk’s appointment as prime minister in December marked a turning point for the largest country in the European Union’s east, drawing a line under eight years of nationalist rule that set Warsaw at odds with Western allies and putting the nation of 38 million people on a resolutely pro-European course.

The broad coalition which Tusk leads won a majority in October’s parliamentary elections on promises to roll back judicial reforms implemented by the last government that critics said undermined the independence of the courts while boosting the rights of women and minorities.

He has painted victory on Sunday for his liberal Civic Coalition (KO), the largest grouping in the ruling alliance, as essential if Poland is to avoid sliding back towards nationalist rule under the Law and Justice party (PiS).