No majority winner, Poland presidential vote heads to runoff: exit polls

WARSAW - No candidate secured more than 50 percent of vote in the first round of Poland's presidential election on Sunday, according to exit polls.

A runoff will be held on June 1 between Civic Coalition candidate Rafal Trzaskowski and independent candidate Karol Nawrocki. The Ipsos exit polls showed that Trzaskowski garnered 30.8 percent of the vote, compared to Nawrocki's 29.1 percent.

The polling stations opened at 7 am local time and close at 9 pm on Sunday.

Trzaskowski has served as the mayor of Warsaw since 2018. Nawrocki, a historian and head of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance, is new to electoral politics, but has consistently ranked second in the polls.

Polish media RMF24 reported that voter turnout in the first round reached 66.8 percent, higher than the 64.5 percent recorded in the first round of the 2020 presidential election.

The Polish president serves a five-year term. Under election law, if no candidate secures more than half of the vote, a runoff is held between the top two contenders. In the 2020 election, incumbent President Andrzej Duda won re-election by defeating Trzaskowski.