The longer this „non-partisan”? Elections of leaders of Polish major cities in the 2002–2018

Abstract

The subject of the research undertaken in the article are the competitions (in the years 2002–2018) for the position of the mayor of the city in 19. Polish cities. The main goal was to find answer for the question: was party affiliation promoted incumbents or rather favored the alternation of power in the cities. The position of political parties was examined on the basis of two criteria. The first one was the number of incumbents affiliated with political parties. Another was the number of participants in the mayor’s competitions who obtained the second result after the winner. In the examined cities 60. reelection cases were recorded – in the majority there were nonpartisan incumbents. In 16 cases of power alternation, however, the candidates of political parties dominated. In the years 2002–2018 in all cities there were exactly 95 elections (19 cities x 5 elections) – in as many as 74 of them the main rivals of the winners were the candidates of political parties. The research has shown that the multi-years incumbency were favored outside the party, and – on the other hand – the political parties played a greater role in the changes of the mayors of cities.