Polish Prez, rival tied in final poll before run-off

Warsaw, July 11 (IANS) Incumbent Polish President Andrzej Duda and his rival, opposition-backed candidate Rafal Trzaskowski, were tied in a final poll ahead of country’s run-off presidential election on Sunday.

On Friday, the poll, conducted by IBRiS for internet publication Onet.pl, confirmed a neck-and-neck between the two candidates, a trend since the first-round of election on June 28, reports Xinhua news agency.

The poll showed Trzaskowski, the Mayor of Warsaw and a candidate of the main opposition party Civic Platform (PO), at 47.4 per cent support, followed by Duda at 45.7 per cent.

“We need to read this result as a tie,” IBRiS director Marcin Duma told Onet.

Seven per cent were still undecided, the poll found.

Duda, supported by the conservative Law and Justice party seeking a second five-year term, won the first round with 43.5 per cent of the vote, followed by Trzaskowski with 30.5 per cent.

Szymon Holownia, an independent who garnered 13.3 per cent voters in the first round, has already endorsed Trzaskowski for the run-off.

Exit polls had indicated 62.9 per cent of voters cast their ballots on June 28, up from 49 per cent five years earlier.

The presidential race, originally planned for May 10, was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown.

To date, Poland has a total of 37,216 COVID-19 infections, with 1,562 deaths.

–IANS

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