Poland's presidential election heads to run-off election

Voters in Poland will head to a run-off election on June 1 to choose their next president, early exit polls showed on Sunday.

Initial forecasts put 53-year-old Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, representing Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Coalition, narrowly ahead with 30.8% of the vote.

Karol Nawrocki, a 42-year-old historian and political outsider running as an independent with backing from the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, received 29.1%.

As neither of them received the necessary absolute majority at the first attempt, a second round of voting is necessary.

Sławomir Mentzen, candidate for the radical right-wing Confederation party, came in third with 15.4%.

According to forecasts, voter turnout was 66.8%. By the afternoon, more than 50% of eligible voters had cast their ballots, the commission had said - nearly three percentage points higher than at the same time during the last such vote in 2020.

Some 29 million people were eligible to vote in the election to choose a successor to President Andrzej Duda, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third five-year term.

Trzaskowski, who has been mayor since 2018, achieved a strong result in the 2020 presidential election, narrowly losing to Duda in the run-off.

Duda's right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), which is the largest opposition party after losing power to Tusk's coalition in 2023, is backing Nawrocki.

Tusk's pro-EU coalition has been constrained by Duda, who is aligned with PiS. A win for Trzaskowski, whether now or in a second round, would give Tusk a freer hand to push his reform agenda.

The Polish president represents the country abroad, has influence over foreign policy, appoints the head of government and the Cabinet, and is the commander-in-chief of the Polish Armed Forces in the event of war.

The election is widely viewed as a pivotal moment for the EU and NATO member state.