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By Gabriela Baczynska
WARSAW (Reuters) - The deaths of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the central bank governor and leading politicians from the opposition Law and Justice have changed at a stroke Poland's political landscape.
* Kaczynski was widely expected to seek another five-year term as president in elections that had been scheduled for the autumn. The vote will now be brought forward and its outcome is far from clear. Opinion polls had suggested the conservative Kaczynski would lose to Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist candidate, but Saturday's tragedy may have changed the picture.
"The political consequences will be long term and possibly will change the entire future landscape of Polish politics. This will have a huge impact on the elections and its hard now to say much more but their outcome could be a surprise," said Jacek Wasilewski of the Warsaw's Higher School of Social Psychology.
"Of course Law and Justice has taken the greatest blow from this event, but it does not make (the ruling) Civic Platform's life any easier. It is hard to be opposed to someone who suffered such a great loss."
* Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw heads the opposition rightist Law and Justice (PiS) party. Senior Law and Justice party officials were also reported to have died in the crash, including the head of its parliamentary faction, Grazyna Gesicka. Sources told Reuters Jaroslaw Kaczynski was not on the plane. The loss of senior figures will severely weaken the parliamentary party.
* Another presidential candidate, Jerzy Szmajdzinski of the small leftist SLD, was also among the passengers travelling on the plane along with the military head of staff, several generals and other top state representatives.
* Poland's speaker of the lower chamber of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, has taken over as the head of state and will announce the date of the presidential election. Komorowski is also the presidential candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Platform (PO) party.
The Polish constitution says the election date must be announced within two weeks and the election must take place within two months of the announcement. That means Poles will chose their new head of state by the end of June. Poland's government started an extraordinary sitting at 1100 GMT.
* Financial markets are likely to focus on the death of trusted central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek.
"It's important for the central bank to quickly have a new governor who would, with his background and history, confirm that our currency and reserves are in good hands," said Andrzej Arendarski, head of the National Chamber of Commerce.
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