Jaroslaw Kaczynski - the twin of Lech Kaczynski, who died in a fiery plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, on April 10 - said on Monday that he would seek the post his brother held in early presidential elections slated for June 20.

"The president's life cut tragically short, and the death of Poland's patriotic elite, means one thing to us: we must complete their mission," Jaroslaw Kaczynski said in a statement announcing his candidacy. "We owe this to them; we owe this to our nation," he said.

Jaroslaw, the elder twin by 45 minutes, heads the opposition right-wing Law and Justice party and served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007. He lost that job to Donald Tusk of the Civic Platform, who is currently prime minister, in snap elections in November 2007.

Kaczynski said he'd decided to campaign for the presidential job because Poland was a shared responsibility that "demands overcoming personal suffering."

Public mood hard to predict

In a recently published poll that had assumed Jaroslaw Kaczynski would run for president, he received about 26 percent support from those surveyed. Poland's acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski, led the poll with nearly 50 percent support as the candidate for the governing, center-right Civic Platform.

But the public mood is difficult to gauge after the fatal plane accident, which wiped out much of Poland's military and political elite.

"This is not a normal election," said Krzysztof Bobinski, director of the Warsaw think-tank, Unia and Polska Foundation. "In reality, it won't be him (Jaroslaw) running, it will be his brother. His campaign will play on sympathy for his brother."

All political parties had until this Monday to notify the national election commission of their respective candidates. Each candidate must now gather 100,000 signatures of support by May 6.

Under the Polish constitution, the date for presidential elections must be announced within two weeks of a sitting president's death. Voting must then take place within 60 days of that announcement.

gb/dpa/AFP/AP

Editor:Susan Houlton