Polish voters will travel to the June 1 election on June 1 to choose their next president, Sunday showed.
The initial forecasts put 53-year-old Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, representing Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Centrist Civic Coalition, leading by 31.1% of the vote.
Karol Nawrocki is a 42-year-old historian and political outsider who was an independent political outsider and supported by the right-wing law and justice (PIS) party, receiving a 29.1% award.
Since neither of them got the absolute majority they needed in their first attempt, a second round of votes had to be conducted.
Radical right-wing Federalist candidate Sławomir Mentzen ranked third with a score of 14.8%.
According to forecasts, voter turnout is 66.8%. By the afternoon, more than 50% of eligible voters voted, three percentage points higher than the same time as the last such vote in 2020.
About 29 million people are eligible to vote in the election to choose the successor of President Andrzej Duda, who is constitutionally prohibited from seeking a third five-year term.
Trzaskowski, who has been mayor since 2018, achieved great results in the 2020 presidential election, barely losing to Duda in runoff.
Duda's right-wing Legal and Justice Party (PIS) is the largest opposition party to lose the Tusk coalition in 2023, and he supports Nawrocki.
Tusk's pro-EU alliance is bound by Duda, which is consistent with PIS. Whether now or in the second round, Trzaskowski's victory will give Tusk freely pushing his reform agenda.
The President of Poland represents countries abroad and has an impact on foreign policy. He appoints the heads of the government and cabinet and is the commander-in-chief of the Polish armed forces during the war.
The election is widely regarded as a critical moment for EU and NATO members.
Warsaw mayor and Citizen Union presidential candidate Rafal Trzaskowski and his wife Malgorzata Trzaskowska saw it in the first round of the presidential election. Marek Antoni Iwanczuk/SOPA Images by Zuma Press Wire/DPA
