Poland will hold its first round of votes in Sunday's presidential election.

This is a fierce competition between the two main candidates - one from the Citizen Platform, the main party that ruled the Citizens Union, and the other one being independents supported by the main opposition party, Law and Justice (PIS).

Although most of the power depends on the Prime Minister and Parliament in Poland, the president was able to veto legislation and had an impact on military and foreign policy decisions. Incumbent President Andrzej Duda from PIS used his veto power to prevent the government from trying to enact reforms in the judicial system for a period of time.

Furthermore, reports of foreign election interventions have scared voters recently, who are mainly concerned about issues such as the Russian-Ukrainian war, immigration, abortion rights and the economy.

Here is all we know about the upcoming vote:

How does voting work?

Polish citizens aged 18 or older can vote. There are about 29 million qualified voters. On Sunday, they will select a candidate from the list of registered presidential candidates. If the candidate wins at least 50% of the vote, they will win the election. If none of the candidates meet the 50% threshold, the country will vote for the second round of the two top contenders in the first round of the competition on June 1. The winner of the contest will become president. The election is expected to enter the second round.

The president can serve in Poland for up to two years. The current president will end on August 6.

Polls open and close in Poland?

On May 18, the poll will be open at 7 a.m. GMT (05:00 a.m. GMT) and will be open at 9 p.m. (19:00 a.m. GMT).

What are the risks?

In 2023, the current Prime Minister Donald Tusk's civic alliance came to power, ending the eight-year rule of the PIS party government.

Although Tusk promised to reverse the unpopular judicial reforms carried out by PIS, the party's former nationalist ally President Andrzej Duda hindered Tusk's efforts by using his presidential power to veto legislation.

What are the key issues?

Key issues dominated by this election include the Russian-Ukrainian War.

When the war first broke out in February 2022, Poland fully supported Ukraine and welcomed more than one million Ukrainian refugees who had no documents across the border.

On May 10, Tusk visited Kiev with other European leaders and provided Russian President Vladimir Putin with a final pass to implement an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine.

However, relations between Poland and Ukraine became tense. Earlier this year, Polish farmers led protests that the market was flooded with cheap agricultural products from Ukraine.

There are also emerging reports that Ukrainian refugees face discrimination in Poland and dissatisfaction with the benefits they provide.

Due to Russia's aggression with Ukraine, people have become increasingly worried about the overflow of Russian aggression. On May 12, the Warsaw Foreign Ministry said that an investigation showed that a fire was planned by Moscow's intelligence agencies in May 2024 at a shopping mall in Warsaw.

Several candidates in the presidential election have proposed increasing the defense budget to 5% of GDP.

Poles also attracted economic attention to taxes, housing costs and public transport status.

Abortion is a key issue in Poland. Poland has some of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. Women can only have an abortion in the case of rape or incest, or the woman's life or health is at risk.

In August 2024, Tusk admitted that he did not have enough support to fulfill one of his key campaign commitments and change the abortion law.

Opinions on whether LGBTQ rights should be restricted or expanded in the country.

The country is also disagreeing on the extent of participation with the EU (EU), and PI has taken the stance that the country is better at establishing alliances with the United States than the EU.

Who is running?

A total of 13 candidates are competing for the presidency. The top four candidates are:

Rafal Trzaskowski

Trzaskowski, 53, has been the Liberal mayor of Warsaw since 2018 and an ally of Tusk, affiliated with the PM's political alliance Citizens' Union. He is also a senior member of the Citizens Platform Party (PO) who is in charge of the Citizens Union. Trzaskowski was nearly defeated by Duda in the 2020 presidential election.

During his tenure as mayor, he was praised for investing in Warsaw's infrastructure and culture. He suggested increasing defense spending to 5% of GDP and developing Poland's weapons and technology industries.

Trzaskowski has a liberal view. He is pro-European, and one of his campaign promises includes strengthening Poland's position in the EU. His other promise is to relax abortion laws, but he has been quiet on the issue during the presidential election campaign. He also supports the LGBTQ community and participates in Pride Parades. This can alienate some more conservative voters who live outside the city centers.

Therefore, right-wing voters can vote against him in the second round of voting. Trzaskowski may also lose support from centrists and progressive voters who are frustrated that Tusk cannot reform the abortion law.

Karol Nawrocki

Nawrocki, 42, is a conservative historian who is an independent candidate supported by the PIS party.

His academic work centered on anti-communist resistance. He currently manages the National Memorial Institute, where his removal from the Soviet Memorial Hall angered Russia. From 2017 to 2021, he managed the World War II Museum in northern Poland.

His campaign promises include lowering taxes and withdrawing Poland from the EU's immigration agreement and green agreement. He also hopes to allocate 5% of GDP to national defense. Nawrocki criticized more rights for LGBTQ couples.

Navoloki has had a lot of controversy in the past. In 2018, he published a book about the infamous gangster, which took "Tadeusz Batyr" as an example. In public comments, Navoloki and Bathir praised each other without revealing that they were the same person.

Slavomir Mentzen

Mentzen, 38, is a far-right entrepreneur who leads the New Hope Party, a member of the Confederate Union. He holds degrees in Economics and Physics. Owning a brewery in Torun; operating a tax consulting company; and criticizing government regulation, hoping for a significant tax cut.

Mentzen uses social media platforms to connect with young voters.

He believes that Poland should not occupy a place in the Russian-Ukrainian war. He wants to ensure that the Polish constitution covers EU law and hopes to withdraw from the EU Green Agreement. He opposed LGBTQ rights and opposed abortion, even in rape cases.

Before the 2019 European Parliament election, he said: "We don't want Jews, gays, abortions, taxes or the EU." Since then, he has tried to distance himself from this statement.

Despite the free higher education in Poland, Manzsson conducted a poll after advocating for payment of tuition at state schools in late March.

szymon lownia

Olownia, 48, is a former journalist and TV character transformation politician. He is the spokesman or marshal of the House of Commons.

In 2020, he founded a centrist movement called Polska 2050, which quickly joined a party and eventually joined Tusk's alliance.

Lowownia hopes to promote regional development while better use of affordable housing and improve public transportation systems. He said he wanted to reduce bureaucracy, support Polish operations and develop Poland's domestic arms production capacity.

Other candidates

Three left-wing candidates also participated in the election, including Senate Speaker Magdalena Biejat, 43, an advocate for women's rights, minority rights, affordable housing and abortion; Adrian Zandberg, 45, made similar commitments to Biejat; Joanna Senyszyn, a former member of the United Workers' Party of Poland, and Joanna Senyszyn, academic and MP.

Other candidates include far-right Grzegorz Braun, who was pillored globally for using a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles in parliament in 2023, and journalist and YouTuber Krzysztof Stanowski, 42, who does not have a political program and wants to show Poles behind the scenes of the campaign while raising money for charity.

What does the poll say?

As of May 12, Trzaskowski led by 31% of voters, according to the overall report of Politico's poll. Nawrocki was second with 25%, while Mentzen made 13%, and Lownia made 7%.

When will we know the result?

After the poll is over, IPSOS will publish an exit poll based on the survey conducted at 500 randomly selected polling stations. Although this is not an official result, it is expected that the way voting will develop is highly dictated. Some results may start on Sunday night or Monday.

In Poland, voting is always held on Sundays. In 2020, the official results of the first round of voting were confirmed Tuesday morning.

What is the controversy over election interference?

On Wednesday, Poland said it had discovered possible attempts to intervene through ads on Facebook.

"The NASK Disinformation Analysis Centre has identified political ads that may be funded from abroad on the Facebook platform. The material is displayed in Poland," a statement from Nask said. "In the past seven days, advertising accounts involving the event have spent more on political material than any election commission."

The NASK statement did not state which countries of the campaign's financial supporters were considered based. Romania announced high concerns about the November presidential election after Romania announced reports that it had alleged Russian election interference. The first round of elections took place on May 4, and the second round will be held on May 18. This is after far-right politician Calin Georgescu, who voted in unit numbers during the campaign, surprisingly winning.