Ten candidates have successfully managed to raise over 100,000 signatures demanded by the State Electoral Commission to stand in the June presidential election.
The presidential race is officially on. Midnight on Thursday marked the formal deadline for hopefuls to register their candidacy.
Even though the minimum amount of signatures to be collected stands at 100,000, all of the candidates managed to hand in more than the minimum required.
The first to collect the signatures from members of the public were Waldemar Pawlak (Polish People’s Party), Grzegorz Napieralski (Democratic Left Alliance) and Marek Jurek (Polish Right).
By the end of Thursday other candidates to hand in their signatures were Boguslaw Zietka (August ’80), Andrzej Lepper (Self-Defence), Janusz Korwin-Mikke (Union of Real Politics), Andrzej Olechowski, Kornel Morawiecki, and the front-runners, Bronislaw Komorowski (Civic Platform) and Jaroslaw Kaczynski (Law and Justice).
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who decided to stand in the election for Law and Justice, managed to collect 1.6 million signatures. “I wanted to thank everyone who collected the signatures, and all those who gave their signature, who gave their support and goodwill,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski told journalists after handing in the signatures to the Electoral Commission.
Civic Platform’s Bronislaw Komorowski handed in 770,000 signatures to the commission. Head of Komorowski’s campaign, Slawomir Nowak stated that his campaign committee is happy with the result. “These signatures denote an obligation for us, for people working in this campaign, and on behalf of Bronislaw Komorowski,” he said.
A final list of candidates, following a verification procedure by the national election panel, is to be announced on Tuesday.
However, not all presidential hopefuls managed to gain enough signatures on time, and as such will not be taking part in the presidential race leading up to the elections on June 20. These include Bogdan Szpryngiel, Roman Sklepowicz, Ludwik Wasiak, Krzysztof Mazurski, and Gabriel Janowski, Zdzislaw Podkanski and Jozef Wojcik, who managed to gather 2000 signatures only.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Bronislaw Komorowski are almost certain to be the frontrunners in the race for the presidency. Current surveys give Komorowski around 45 percent of the vote, 15 percentage points more than Kaczynski. If none of the candidates receives over 50 percent of the vote on June 20, a second round will be held on July 4. (jb/mk)
List of candidates by signatures gained (number of signatures rounded to nearest thousand)
Jaroslaw Kaczynski (PiS) – 1,650,000
Bronislaw Komorowski (PO) – 770,000
Grzegorz Napieralski (SLD) – 380,000
Andrzej Olechowski – 233,000
Waldemar Pawlak (PSL) – 190,000
Marek Jurek (Prawica RP) – 180,000
Boguslaw Zietka (WZZ Sierpien '80) – 170,000
Janusz Korwin-Mikke (UPR) – 138,000
Andrzej Lepper (Samoobrona) – 122,000
Kornel Morawiecki – 110,000