Voting stations in Poland opened early Sunday for municipal elections in which Poles were to elect over 48,000 regional leaders around the country, dpa reported.
The municipal elections are regarded as a barometer of the political mood ahead of parliamentary elections in 2011.
Some 30 million Poles were eligible to vote, being asked to choose 2,500 borough, mayor, and city presidents, in addition to 46,000 local and village officials.
Opinion polls before the voting showed the gap had narrowed between the ruling Civic Platform (PO) party of Premier Donald Tusk and Jaroslaw Kaczynski's right-wing opposition party Law and Justice.
Kaczynski had waged a diplomatic-style campaign in the country's presidential elections held after his twin brother Lech was killed in April in a plane crash in Russia. He was defeated by Bronislaw Komorowski, the PO candidate.
Since then, Kaczynski has returned to his trademark combative style of politics, seeking to stop the decline in support for his party, which has dwindled to some 22 per cent in opinion polls.
The country's some 25,000 polling stations remain open until 10 pm (2100 GMT) Sunday night, with final results expected on Tuesday.