Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, the former deputy to Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz, who was murdered, won a landslide victory in elections to replace him in the Northern Polish City, preliminary results showed on Monday.

The murder of Mr Adamowicz, a liberal critic of the anti-immigrant policies of Poland’s government, during a charity event in January provoked a wave of emotion in the country and a debate on hate speech.

As of 0600 GMT, Ms Dulkiewicz had won 82 per cent of the vote on a turnout of 48.6 per cent according to Gdansk’s website.

“This is a very good turnout in unusual and special elections which nobody expected,’’ Polish news agency PAP quoted Ms Dulkiewicz as saying.

“I believe that in since January the people of Gdansk passed the exam, not only as human beings but also as citizens.”

Poland’s major political parties did not field candidates in the election, meaning Ms Dulkiewicz had only two opponents far-right candidates, Grzegorz Braun and Marek Skiba.

(Reuters/NAN)