Brawo Warszawa!

The silence is over. Exit poll results show PiS emerges as a winner, however combined results of the Zjednoczona Opozycja and PSL outpace PiS by eight percentage points.

For me this local election has been out of ordinary for two reasons.

Firstly, as a first ballot after three years of PiS wielding power to the extent going far beyond the one set forth in the mandate entrusted by Poles in 2015, is the occasion for Poles to shout out whether they embrace or reject the meanders of Dobra Zmiana. The election thus has been a major gauge for the ruling party and it preliminary results indicate support to PiS varies markedly between regions, with large cities in majority turning down Dobra Zmiana, while provincial Poland being still the stronghold of PiS.

Secondly, and I wonder whether the date was deliberately selected, today marks the eleventh anniversary of PiS prestigious defeat in the parliamentary election in 2007.

Thirdly, though this is the eleventh election I have cast my vote in, for the first time I voted as a citizen of Warsaw. Today as I turned up to the polling station just before 8 a.m. (drove there from the other end of Warsaw) I worried I would not be on the list of the entitled to vote. Although while checking in as permanent resident in late August I had been assured in the town hall of Ursynów I would be on the list, my faith in proper working of the local administration was not particularly strong. Fortunately, after queuing up for five minutes I found out everything was in order and I could show the middle finger to the ruling party and to Mr Nijaki.

Actually, the mayoral vote in Warsaw wasmore about national than local politics, treated both by PiS and Zjednoczona Opozycja as rehearsal before next years’s European and parliamentary elections. Since I had not been convinced by any of fourteen candidates and bearing in mind only two stand a chance to be in a run-off, my tactics was to decrease the probability of the run-off at all. Exit poll results for Warsaw show I have not been the only one and residents of the capital will be spared a pleasure (and the expenses) of visiting the polling station next week.

Friends on facebook also reported high turnout in their polling stations, yet the actual figures compared to those reported in 2014 local election indicate increase by mere two percentage points. Regardless of the outcome, higher turnout means stronger legitimacy of the elected governors.

To take off HGW: BHAWO WAHSZAWA!