Polish Presidential election to be held in June

Poland's acting President Bronislaw Komorowski called for an early presidential election to be held on June 20, his spokesman said yesterday, and opinion polls showed he would easily win the vote.

The early election was made necessary by the death of President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed in a plane crash in Russia on April 10.

"Today at 5.40 a.m. speaker Komorowski has signed all the documents, hence setting the date of election for June 20," Mr Komorowski's spokesman, Jerzy Smolinski, said by telephone.

Mr Komorowski, candidate of the Civic Platform (PO) party, came out well ahead of potential challengers in two opinion polls published by tabloid newspapers.

A TNS OBOP poll, conducted on April 19 with a sample of 1,000 people, gave Mr Komorowski 55 per cent of support compared to 32 per cent for Jaroslaw Kaczynski who leads the main opposition party, the conservative Law and Justice, and is the twin brother of the country's late president.

The survey, released by the daily Fakt, also showed Mr Komorowski winning handily over other potential candidates of PiS, as well as the small leftist opposition party SLD, whose candidate was among the 96 victims of the plane crash which wiped out much of Poland's military and political elite.

Separately, the Super Express daily published a Homo Homini poll, also conducted on April 19, that showed Mr Komorowski winning 39.3 per cent, with support pegged at 18.2 per cent for Mr Kaczynski, who so far has not said whether he would seek the post.

The conservative PiS is expected to name its candidate on Saturday and some party members have said they would back Mr Kaczynski.