Opinion polls indicate that the presidential race is neck and neck. Some observers have said that a win by opposition contender Trzaskowski would produce a political earthquake.
The Polish president has the power to veto legislation passed by parliament, a key prerogative in a country where traditionalists and liberals are bitterly divided.
Conservatives have warned that if Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw and the candidate of the opposition Civic Platform party, is elected head of state on Sunday, he will block a swathe of government initiatives, hampering the administration’s ability to push through core policies.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday that a vote for Trzaskowski "guarantees war for the next three years. It means gridlock, chaos and paralysis."
Trzaskowski has vowed he will watch the Law and Justice government closely, but promised he will not block legislation for the sake of it.
Poland’s governing conservatives last fall won parliamentary elections for a second consecutive term and are hoping to keep their grip on power by maintaining control of the presidency.
No candidate won an outright majority in a first round of voting on June 28. Polish election rules specify that if no presidential contender wins more than 50 percent of the vote in a first-round contest, a second round is held two weeks later.
Duda became president in 2015 and is bidding for another five years in office. He has presented himself as a champion of traditional, patriotic values and of the poor.
Duda came top in the first round of the presidential contest last month, garnering 43.5 percent of the vote.
Trzaskowski, a former government minister who was elected mayor of Warsaw in October 2018, was runner-up in the first round with 30.46 percent, according to the National Electoral Commission (PKW).
He is seen as more progressive than his rival, and has positioned himself a defender of local decision-making rather than what he says is the government’s instinct to centralise power.
The presidential vote was originally scheduled for May 10, but failed to go ahead amid the COVID-19 epidemic.
(pk)