WARSAW, Nov. 18 (Reuters) - Polish voters choose new mayors and local councillors on Sunday in an election set to confirm the dominance of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist, pro-business Civic Platform (PO) ahead of 2011 national polls.
The municipal elections will also show whether disputes engulfing conservative-nationalist Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s biggest opposition party, are eroding its support.
"The most interesting aspect will be the difference between the two main parties and the scale of the beating PiS is likely to get," said Pawel Swieboda, head of demosEuropa think-tank.
"If it were a national election they would do quite badly. At the local level, it is always a bit different, especially as there are prominent local politicians, often independents, who can skew the results."
PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who has just lost several deputies disillusioned by what they see as his intransigence and intolerance, made an emotional appeal to voters in a broadcast on Thursday invoking the memory of his late brother and former president Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in April.
"My late and much-lamented brother, President Lech Kaczynski, dreamt of a strong Poland. Beloved Leszek, we will continue your legacy by building a strong Polish state," he said in a clip that resembled an address to the nation.
BIKINIS, SHINING ARMOUR
While national parties have generally waged a lacklustre campaign for the municipal elections, individual candidates have managed to infuse some colour.
Polish singer and tabloid celebrity Sara May — her real name is Katarzyna Szczolek — has put up posters of herself stretched out on the sand in a provocative bikini as part of her campaign to win a Warsaw district council seat.
One of her opponents, Jaroslaw Oborski, running on the PO ticket, has taken to wearing knight’s armour to highlight his battle for what he calls "tangible change".
In the eastern city of Lublin, Piotr Franaszek, also a PO candidate, poses in his "Operation Lublin" campaign ads as British secret agent James Bond.
PO looks certain to retain control of the capital Warsaw, the industrial city of Lodz and the Baltic port of Gdansk, while popular independents are expected to be re-elected in the historic southern cities of Krakow and Wroclaw, among others.
PiS, which is traditionally strongest in rural areas, does not run any large cities.
Dissident PiS members who this week set up a splinter group named "Poland is the most important" are too late to field candidates in this election but their departure could further hurt support for PiS among middle-of-the-road voters.
Opinion polls show support for PiS at around 22 percent, less than half of what Kaczynski won in the summer’s presidential election when his bid to replace his late brother was only narrowly defeated by PO candidate Bronislaw Komorowski. A second round of the local elections is set for Dec. 5.
