Parliament Head Komorowski Becomes Poland President after Kaczynski Death

Polish Parliament Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski (L) stands next to PM Donald Tusk (C) and Foreign Minister Sikorski (R) as he celebrates on March 27, 2010 in Warsaw after Poland's center-right governing party chose him as its presidential candidate. Photo

Bronislaw Komorowski, Parliament Speaker and presidential candidate of Poland’s ruling party, is becoming the country’s acting President after Lech Kaczynski perished in a plane crash.

Under the Polish Constitution, the post of Acting President is temporary. If the President is unable to execute his/her powers and duties, a predetermined person will become Acting President.

In the case of a vacancy because of death of the President, the Acting President becomes the head of state until the next election, but without the title of President, and retaining their previous office. All the powers of the President are assumed by the Acting President except for the right to dissolve the Parliament.

The first person in line to become Acting President in Poland is the Marshal of the Sejm, the next is the Marshal of the Senate.

Acting Marshal of the Sejm, i.e. Parliament Speaker, Bronislaw Komorowski was chosen at the end of March 2010 as the presidential candidate of his party to run in the 2010 Presidential Elections against incumbent Lech Kaczynski.

The pro-EU Civic Platform party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk chose Komorowski over Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski in Poland's first primary modeled along US lines at the very end of March 2010. 58-year-old Komorowski, a former anti-communist dissident, won 68,5% of the votes to Sikorski's 31.5%.