Poland’s Presidential Election Too Close to Call

A pivotal presidential election in Poland was too close to call Sunday night, with exit polls showing the two contenders nearly neck and neck and each candidate claiming victory a day before the official ballot count was to to be announced.

Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, declared victory Sunday evening after the release of early exit poll data that showed him with a tiny lead over his right-wing rival. But an updated set of survey data released later flipped the results and gave Mr. Trzaskowki’s opponent, Karol Nawrocki, a narrow lead.

Mr. Nawrocki, a nationalist historian backed by Poland’s right-wing former governing party, Law and Justice, told supporters in Warsaw that the official count, to be released on Monday, would show him to be the victor.

“I believe that we will all wake up tomorrow morning with President Nawrocki putting the broken Poland back together,” he said Sunday night. Quoting a passage from the Bible, he said that God would “heal the land” of those who “turn away from wicked ways.”

Exit polling data, which in the past has been highly accurate in Poland, initially gave Mr. Trzaskowski 50.3 percent, but was later revised to give Mr. Nawrocki 50.7 percent.

Confident that the official count would confirm the initial exit polling data, Mr. Trzaskowski celebrated Sunday evening in Warsaw with supporters, telling them: “We won. I think that the term ‘razor thin victory’ will forever enter the Polish language and politics.”