Warsaw, 2 June 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Polish conservative Karol Nawrocki won the run-off election for the presidency, according to local media on Monday, citing the election commission's count of more than 99% of votes.

Nawrocki secured just under 51% of the vote, Polish media, including the Rzeczpospolita newspaper and Onet.pl portal, reported.

His opponent, liberal candidate Rafał Trzaskowski, received just over 49%.

An official final result of the vote to find a successor to President Andrzej Duda is not expected until Monday evening from the electoral commission.

All the opinion polls in the run-up to Sunday's vote had indicated a razor-thin gap between the candidates since the first round of voting on May 18.

Exit polls on election night on Sunday also indicated the result was too close to call, with forecasts giving Trzaskowski around 50.3% of the vote and Nawrocki about 49.7%.

Trzaskowski had called the outcome a win immediately after the first exit polls were announced.

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.

Nawrocki, a historian who has never held public office, represents the conservative nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS).

As head of the Institute of National Remembrance tasked with evaluating the country's complex recent past, Nawrocki ordered Soviet memorials to be destroyed following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, exploiting the move in the media and incurring the wrath of the Kremlin.

His upbringing in a working class area in Gdańsk, his successful career in amateur boxing and his work as a nightclub bouncer while a student are pluses with many voters. Less so his alleged links to prostitution dating back to that time.

He aims to maintain traditional Polish values and cautions against transferring powers to the European Union.

Nawrocki enjoys the backing of US President Donald Trump, who granted him an audience in the White House in early May during the Polish presidential campaign.

Photo: EPA