First projections, Rafał Trzaskowski narrowly wins in the first round of the Polish presidential election

The candidate of Poland's ruling Civic Platform (PO) coalition, Rafał Trzaskowski, has won 30.8% in the first round of the presidential election, according to preliminary exit polls on Sunday evening.

Second place went to PiS-backed candidate Karol Nawrocki, who won 29.1%, the poll prepared by Ipsos on behalf of TVP, TVN and Polsat showed.

According to a separate poll by the National Research Group (NRG) for Telewizja Republika, Trzaskowski won 31.6% while Nawrocki won 29.8%.

The two candidates will now face each other in the presidential election runoff, which will take place on June 1, reports the Telegraph.

Slawomir Mentzen came in third, with 15.4% of the vote according to the Ipsos poll and 14% according to the NRG poll.

Thirteen candidates participated in the first round of elections: 11 men and two women.

During a press conference at 18:30 p.m., the State Election Commission reported that turnout had reached 50.69% by 17 p.m.

In comparison, the turnout in the previous presidential election in 2020 in the first round was 64.5%. Just over 28 million people are eligible to vote in Poland.

On Monday and Tuesday, the State Election Commission will report on turnout and results at press conferences.

If turnout is high, we will have to wait up to two days for official election results. The chairman of the State Election Commission said he hoped to announce the election results late Monday evening or overnight.

There have been three incidents so far during Sunday's vote. Two elderly people died at polling stations in Szczecin and Bielsko-Biała.

"From the incidents worth mentioning, it appears that today an aggressive man forced his way into a polling station in the Bielsko-Biała electoral district and started a fight with other people. As a result of the fight, he bit one of the commission members on the left forearm," Sylwester Marciniak, head of the State Election Commission, informed the press conference.

The election campaign, which officially ran from January 15 to Friday, was filled with numerous controversial topics. The main axes of discussion between the candidates were security, migration, defense, the economy, the war in Ukraine, social issues, abortion, relations with the European Union and the United States. There were also presidential debates on public television and private media.

Other candidates withdrew from the presidential race, such as pro-Russian Maciej Maciak, journalist Krzysztof Stanowski, who said he was running out of curiosity, or far-right and anti-European Grzegorz Braun.

The left entered the election divided, highlighting two active politicians: Senate Deputy Speaker Magdalena Biejat and Together Party co-chair Adrian Zandberg, and former Democratic Left Alliance Deputy Speaker and MEP Joanna Senyszyn. /Telegraph/