Łukasz Gibała and Monika Piątkowska will contest a second-round vote for mayor of Kraków after neither candidate won an outright majority in Sunday’s snap election, according to the completed count published after all polling districts reported.
Gibała finished first with 93,042 votes, or 36.38%, while Piątkowska received 76,514 votes, or 29.91%. Turnout was 43.50%, according to figures from the complete count reported by RMF24 on the basis of National Electoral Commission data.
With neither candidate crossing the 50% threshold required to win in the first round, the City of Kraków has confirmed that the runoff will take place on 11 October. Polling stations are due to open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m.
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Michał Drewnicki, the Law and Justice (PiS) candidate, finished third with 44,772 votes, or 17.50%. He was followed by Aleksandra Owca of Razem on 6.91%, Daria Gosek-Popiołek of the Left on 4.81%, Michał Klimek of Confederation of the Polish Crown on 4.11%, and Sławomir Pietrzyk of Social Democracy of Poland on 0.37%.
The result sets up a runoff between two candidates with different political bases.
Gibała is the founder of the local Kraków dla Mieszkańców — Kraków for Residents — movement and a former member of the Polish parliament. A Kraków city biography of Gibała describes him as a former regional councillor and two-term MP who later built his political activity around the local residents’ association.
He also contested Kraków’s regular mayoral election in 2024, reaching the second round before losing narrowly to Aleksander Miszalski.
Piątkowska is a senator who entered the election with the backing of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) and the Polish People’s Party (PSL), both members of Poland’s governing coalition. She formally stood, however, through her own voter committee, Monika Piątkowska — Ponad Podziałami, rather than as the candidate of a joint KO-PSL electoral committee.
That distinction became relevant during the campaign because Piątkowska had initially been presented publicly as the joint KO-PSL candidate before registering her own electoral committee while retaining the support of both parties.
Sunday’s election was necessary because Kraków’s previous mayor, Aleksander Miszalski, was removed from office in a recall referendum on 24 May, around two years after winning the city’s regular 2024 mayoral election.
Removing a sitting Polish mayor before the end of their term is possible under Polish law but remains relatively unusual in practice. An analysis by the Association of Polish Cities found that 320 recall referendums involving mayors, town mayors and municipal executives were held across Poland over the previous 20 years, but only 43 succeeded — an effectiveness rate of around 13%. Most failed because turnout did not reach the legal threshold. Samorządowy PAP
That makes the removal of the mayor of a city the size and importance of Kraków particularly notable, though it is not without precedent in Poland.
Under the Local Referendum Act, a referendum to remove a directly elected mayor is valid only if participation reaches at least three-fifths of the number of people who voted when that mayor was elected. The rule dates from legislation adopted in 2005 and applied from the following local-government term. Before that change, a general 30% turnout requirement applied.
In Miszalski’s case, that meant at least 158,555 people had to take part. The actual number was 176,228, giving turnout of 29.99%, compared with an effective validity threshold of about 26.98%. Of those voting, 171,581 supported removing him and 3,631 opposed it. The official Kraków referendum record therefore declared the result valid and Miszalski removed from office.
Voters were simultaneously asked whether the Kraków City Council should also be removed. That vote produced almost identical turnout — 29.97% — but the council had a higher numerical validity threshold of 179,792 voters, reflecting participation in the election that chose the council. It therefore remained in office. Kraków
The recall campaign had begun months earlier. Organisers criticised Miszalski’s administration over issues including municipal finances, personnel decisions, transport policy and the introduction of Kraków’s Clean Transport Zone. Those were arguments advanced by the referendum campaign rather than findings of misconduct by an independent authority. Miszalski rejected much of their characterisation of his administration and argued that some unpopular decisions were necessary responses to the city’s financial and policy challenges.
Polish law also creates procedural barriers before a recall can reach voters. A residents’ initiative to remove a mayor requires support from a prescribed share of eligible voters, and a recall petition can only be launched after the office-holder has served a minimum period of the term. In Kraków, organisers ultimately submitted almost 134,000 signatures, well above the number required to trigger the referendum.
Once Miszalski’s removal became effective, Prime Minister Donald Tusk appointed former Niepołomice mayor and former Małopolska governor Stanisław Kracik to perform the mayor’s duties temporarily. The City of Kraków records him as acting in that role until voters elect a permanent successor.
The result therefore created an unusual political sequence for Poland’s second-largest city: a regularly elected mayor removed less than halfway through his term, an interim administration appointed by the prime minister, a snap mayoral election and now a second-round contest only four months after the recall referendum.
The campaign now moves into a two-week second-round contest between Gibała and Piątkowska.
Both began campaigning again on Monday morning, but the first-round numbers alone do not determine how supporters of the eliminated candidates will vote on 11 October. No candidate secured a majority on Sunday, and the next mayor will be chosen in the head-to-head ballot.
Kraków is one of Poland’s largest cities and a major tourism, university and business centre, giving the mayor substantial responsibility for issues ranging from public transport and housing to development planning, environmental policy and municipal infrastructure.
The completed first-round count establishes who will contest that office. The final decision now passes back to Kraków voters on 11 October.
