Poland’s parliament has set the date for a presidential election following the death of former president Lech Kaczynski in a plane crash 11 days ago.
Bronislaw Komorowski, who is the acting president and will be a candidate, named June 20th as the date for the first round of voting.
If no candidate wins at least half of the ballots cast, a second round will be held two weeks later, on July 4th.
Elections were originally to have been held this autumn but had to be moved up due to Mr Kaczynski’s death in a plane crash in western Russia on April 10th.
The crash also killed his wife and 94 other people, including many of the Country’s civilian and military leaders.
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 19th with a sample of 1,000 people, gave Mr Komorowski 55 per cent of support ,
The late president's twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski who leads the main opposition party, the conservative Law and Justice, was on 32 per cent.
The survey, released by the daily Fakt, also showed Mr Komorowski winning earily over other potential candidates of PiS, as well as the small leftist opposition party SLD, whose candidate was among the victims of the plane crash.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk's junior coalition partner, the Peasant's Party, is due to name its candidate today.
The prime minister holds most of the power in Poland, but the president has a say in foreign and security matters and can veto laws. Mr Komorowski, a long-time Tusk ally, is seen cooperating smoothly with the centrist cabinet.