Though the four main political parties have secured the necessary 100,000 to support their candidates in the June 20 presidential elections, some well known names are struggling to drum up the required level of support.
Both Parliamentary Speaker and acting president, Bronisław Komorowski, from the Civic Platform, and Jarosław Kaczyński, from the Law and Justice party, have acquired around half a million signatures. The Peasants’ Party has filed a list featuring over 191,000 signatures on 1 May. But candidates are still collecting names until the deadline.. “The signatures are still being collected in order to give people the opportunity to become active in the campaign,” said head of Civic Platform Grzegorz Schetyna.
Other candidates are scrambling to reach the required threshold with only fours days left before the deadline imposed by the National Electoral Commission.
Presidential hopefuls, whose election headquarters fail to gather the signatures and do not submit them with the Election Commission by Friday midnight, will have to abandon their plans of running in the race.
Candidates without the necessary 100,000 signatures include Andrzej Olechowski and Janusz Korwin-Mikke, both currently on 50,000 signatures, and Marek Jurek who has collected 80,000. (ab)