Slain Gdansk mayor's deputy wins by-election in Poland

Opposition candidate for the role of Gdansk Mayor Aleksandra Dulkiewicz,second left, poses, with her daughter who casts Dulkiewicz's ballot, in a by-election, in Gdansk, Poland, Sunday, March 3, 2019. Residents in Poland's northern city of Gdansk voted Sunday in a by-election to choose the successor to late Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, who was fatally stabbed during a charity event. (AP Photo/Wojciech Strozyk)

FILE - This May 4, 2016 file photo shows Gdansk mayor Pawel Adamowicz speaking at a commemoration ceremony for late Bremen Mayor Hans Koschnick in Bremen, Germany. Residents in Poland's northern city of Gdansk are voting in a by-election Sunday, March 3, 2019 to choose the successor to late Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, who was fatally stabbed during a charity event. Adamowicz's killing in January has become a platform for calls for political reconciliation but also criticism of the ruling conservative Law and Justice party. (Carmen Jaspersen/dpa via AP, file)

WARSAW, Poland – Officials in northern Poland say that the deputy to slain Gdansk Mayor Pawel Adamowicz has won a by-election to become his successor and the first woman to hold the post.

The city's electoral commission said Monday that 39-year-old lawyer Aleksandra Dulkiewicz was backed by more than 82 percent of voters in Sunday's vote. She had been acting mayor since Adamowicz's Jan. 14 death from stab wounds he suffered the day before onstage during a charity event.

The attacker then grabbed a microphone and said it was revenge against an opposition political party that Adamowicz had once belonged to. The attacker is awaiting trial.

Adamowicz's slaying became a platform for calls for political reconciliation but also criticism of Poland's conservative ruling party.

Dulkiewicz has vowed to continue his course as mayor.