Poland Sets New Presidential Election for June 20

Poland's parliament speaker Bronislaw Komorowski has set the date for an early presidential election after the death of President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 other Polish officials in a plane crash on April 10 near the airport of the Russian city of Smolensk.

Kaczynski and other high-ranking officials were due to participate in a commemoration ceremony at the Katyn memorial – a mass murder of Polish nationals carried out by the Soviet secret police NKVD in April-Mar 1940.

Bronislaw Komorowski, who is the acting president and will be a candidate, set June 20 as the date for the first round of voting.

If no candidate musters at least 50 percent, a second round will be held two weeks later, on July 4.

Elections were originally to have been held this autumn but had to be moved up due to Kaczynski's death.