Poles on Sunday headed to the ballot box to vote in a presidential election, the country's eighth since the fall of communism in 1989.
Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. for voters to elect a new head of state from among 13 candidates, including several backed by the largest political parties.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist pro-EU coalition, which in October 2023 won parliamentary elections after eight years of right-wing rule, is hoping to strengthen its grip on power by gaining control of the presidency.
Trzaskowski, a leading politician for the ruling Civic Coalition (KO), garnered 30.8 percent of the vote on Sunday, according to an exit poll released seconds after voting ended at 9 p.m.
Meanwhile, Nawrocki, a historian supported by the opposition right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, won 29.1 percent, according to the survey by pollster Ipsos.
Far-right hopeful Sławomir Mentzen from the Confederation party was in third place with 15.4 percent.
Another far-right politician, Grzegorz Braun, finished fourth with 6.2 percent, ahead of Adrian Zandberg from the left-wing opposition Together party, with 5.2 percent, the exit poll found.
Lower-house Speaker Szymon Hołownia, co-founder of the centre-right Third Way alliance, came in sixth with 4.8 percent, followed by leftist senator Magdalena Biejat from the co-governing New Left group, with 4.1 percent.
The six other candidates—left-wing veteran Joanna Senyszyn; right-wing Republican Marek Jakubiak; celebrity journalist Krzysztof Stanowski; economist Artur Bartoszewicz; lawyer Marek Woch; and pro-Russian figure Maciej Maciak—shared the remaining 4.4 percent of the ballots cast.
Turnout was a record 66.8 percent, broadcaster TVP Info reported.
More than half a million Poles living abroad registered to vote in the presidential election by absentee ballot, according to officials.
Incumbent Andrzej Duda, who became president in 2015, was barred from seeking a third term under Poland's constitution. His second term ends on August 6.
Polish election rules specify that if no presidential candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in a first-round contest, a second round is held two weeks later.
Trzaskowski and Nawrocki will face each other in a second round of voting on July 1, if the exit poll numbers hold up.
The official results of the vote are expected to be announced over the next day or so.
The winner will serve a five-year term as head of state, overseeing defence and foreign policy and holding veto power over legislation.
Trzaskowski, a prominent politician and political scientist specialising in European studies, has served as mayor of Warsaw since October 2018 and was re-elected to the post last year.
He was a member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2013, Poland’s administration and digitisation minister from 2013 to 2014, and a deputy foreign minister from 2014 to 2015.
He previously ran for president in 2020 but lost to Duda.
His rival, Nawrocki, heads the Institute of National Remembrance, a state-run body tasked with documenting and prosecuting Nazi and Soviet crimes against Polish citizens.
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Source: Polish Radio, IAR, PAP