The paper concerns the subject of the early mayoral elections at the town level in Ruda Śląska, held in September 2022. As a background for the presentation of the central case, the article refers to other earlier mayoral elections held in the same term (after the elections of 2018). The main aim of the analysis is to verify the research hypothesis that early elections of town mayors, held in Poland after 2018, confirm that application of the principle of direct elections favors candidates independent of state-wide parties. The source material for the research consisted mainly of documents of the National Electoral Commission, as well as Polish legal acts related to local electoral processes. The authors have investigated selected sources using the content analysis method. To achieve the research aim, results for particular elections were compared.