Poland’s presidential election on a knife edge after heated election, exit polls show

(CNN) — Warsaw’s liberal mayor and his insurgent populist challenger are locked in a dead heat as they fight for the presidency of Poland, exit polls projected after Sunday’s head-to-head vote, leaving the country tilting between two wildly different political futures.

Exit polls showed Rafał Trzaskowski and Karol Nawrocki essentially tied, with Trzaskowski ahead by less than one percentage point after Sunday’s run-off election.

Should Trzaskowski prevail, he would end the Law and Justice (PiS) party’s 10-year occupancy of the presidential palace – the last political stronghold of the populist bloc that once ruled Poland with near-total authority – and see the mayor claim nationwide power at the second attempt.

But the margins were close enough to throw both candidates – and the countr