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Alsharq Tribune- World News
Exit polls indicated on Sunday that the result in the run-off for the Polish presidency between liberal candidate Rafał Trzaskowski and his conservative rival Karol Nawrocki is too close to call.
The initial forecasts showed that Trzaskowski received 50.3% of the votes, while Nawrocki garnered 49.7%. The forecasts were based on exit polls conducted in around 500 polling stations and have a margin of error of two percentage points.
The official result of the vote to find a successor to President Andrzej Duda is expected to be announced on Monday. Both politicians appeared confident of victory in front of their supporters.
Trzaskowski even called the outcome a win immediately after the first exit polls were announced. "We have won, even if I believe that the expression 'on a knife edge' will enter the Polish language," the 53-year-old said to the cheers of his supporters.
The mood at Nawrocki's election party was much more subdued. He appealed to his supporters not to lose hope. "We have to win tonight and we know it will happen." All the opinion polls in the run-up to Sunday's vote had also indicated a razor-thin gap between the candidates since the first round of voting on May 18.
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.
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.
During its time in government, the PiS was at loggerheads with Brussels over its judicial reform. It also damaged relations with Berlin by demanding trillions in World War II reparations.
