23 June, before the end of his first five-year term of office. Two candidates for the election died in the crash. Incumbent Lech Kaczyński was nominated as the Law and Justice party candidate (he had yet to accept the nomination, but it was widely believed that he would do so), and Jerzy Szmajdziński was to have run for the Democratic Left Alliance. Jarosław Kaczyński ran for president as the replacement for his deceased twin brother. Jerzy Szmajdziński's replacement was Grzegorz Napieralski. Senate by-elections to fill the three seats whose senators died in the crash – Krystyna Bochenek (PO), Janina Fetlińska (PiS) and Stanisław Zając (PiS, himself elected in a by-election on 22 June 2008 to replace Andrzej Mazurkiewicz) – were held on the same day. Candidates In total, 23 candidates registered with the Polish National Electoral Commission on, or just following, the 26 April deadline. 17 of the 23 candidacies were accepted by the commission, whilst the remaining 6 were rejected because they had not gathered the required 1000 signatures. Only ten candidates collected the required 100,000 signatures and were eligible to run for president. Rejected candidates Zdzisław Jankowski Gabriel Janowski – national-conservative, former Minister of Agriculture Dariusz Kosiur Bartłomiej Kurzeja – artist, self-described as "the National Sculptor" Krzysztof Mazurski – scientist, geographer Paweł Pietrzyk Roman Sklepowicz Paweł Soroka – political scientist Bogdan Szpryngiel – a former Libertas candidate to the European Parliament Ludwik Wasiak Józef Wójcik Waldemar Urbanowski Withdrawn Ludwik Dorn – former Marshal of Sejm (Law and Justice), candidate of liberal-conservative party Poland Plus. Tomasz Nałęcz – former Vice-Marshal of Sejm, candidate of Social Democracy of Poland (SdPl). Zdzisław Podkański – former member of the European Parliament (Polish People's Party), leader of the national-conservative party Piast. Dead Lech Kaczyński – President who applied to start for reelection. First candidate of Law and Justice. Jerzy Szmajdziński – former Minister of Defence, Vice-Marshal of Sejm. First candidate of Democratic Left Alliance. Campaign Bronisław Komorowski's campaign slogan was "Unity builds" (Zgoda buduje) and his strategy was to portray himself as an independent politician ready to work with everyone to fix the nation's problems. He pledged to work closely with the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to adopt the euro in about five years, end the unpopular military mission in Afghanistan and promote pro-market reforms. Jarosław Kaczyński's campaign slogan was "Poland is the most important" (Polska jest najważniejsza) and he aimed