WARSAW: Poland’s 29 million voters are electing a new president in Sunday’s neck-and-neck race between liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and conservative Karol Nawrocki, German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
With polling stations to stay open until 9 pm (1900 GMT), no successor to President Andrzej Duda is expected to be announced until Monday, leaving only surveys as indicators of the outcome.
However, the margin of error of the opinion polls is greater than the razor-thin gap seen between the candidates before the run-off, which follows the first round of voting on May 18.
A survey commissioned by the Onet portal shows Trzaskowski in the lead with 50.1 per cent of the vote, barely ahead of Nawrocki with 49.9 per cent. Another commissioned by the Wirtualna Polska (Virtual Poland) website put Nawrocki in the lead with 50.63 per cent and Trzaskowski with 49.37 per cent.
EU and NATO member state Poland is deeply divided politically and the voting outcome will decisively impact its future – both domestically and internationally.
A win for pro-European Trzaskowski, who belongs to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition, would allow Tusk to push ahead with his reformist agenda.
Nawrocki, meanwhile, comes from the conservative nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), like the incumbent Duda, who has blocked many of the government’s legislative projects with his veto power.
In Poland, the president holds a five-year term and has broad powers, including representing the country abroad, shaping foreign policy, appointing the prime minister and the cabinet, and serving as commander-in-chief of the armed forces in the event of war. – BERNAMA-dpa
