Ludwik Dorn, presidential candidate for the Polska Plus party and close associate of Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski has pulled out of this June’s elections.

Polska Plus leader Jerzy Polaczek said it was a decision which paved the way for Poland’s conservative right to put up a joint candidate in the elections.

Ludwik Dorn was one of the closest associates of Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński, sometimes called “the third twin”, and one of the main forces behind the Law and Justice party. Elected to Parliament in 2007, he was voted out of Law and Justice a year later after conflict with Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who was then prime minister.

He is one of the founders of the Polska Plus party, established at the beginning of this year.

Presidential elections had been scheduled in Poland for this autumn, but because of the death of President Lech Kaczyński, early elections will be held, most probably on June 20.

Dorn is understood not to want to split the Law and Justice vote. The party will meet this weekend to decide who will be their candidate after the Smolensk air crash, which killed Lech and Kaczynski and many of Law and Justice’s leading politicians. It is thought that party members would prefer Jaroslaw Kaczynski to replace Lech as candidate. (ek/pg)