The political scene leading to the official commencement of the presidential campaign, the particular stages in the preparations for the election fight, the behaviour of politicians running for the highest post in the country – the events leading to the registration of candidates by the National Election Commission are the topic of this analysis. On the basis of statements of the candidates and “candidates for candidates” for the presidency in 2000, the following characteristic elements of the pre-election period can be discerned: • the announcement of the strategy and chief course of the prepared election campaign, • the method of selecting a candidate to run in the election, • the determination of motifs behind the decision to stand for the election, • the presentation to the public of own assessments of pre-election polls and public-opinion surveys. Additionally, an important variable in the description of the election campaign is its time framework and particular stages determined by the official and non-official elections calendar. The article deals with “candidates to become candidates”, who in effect did not manage to obtain registration as candidates for president, but managed to register their election committees, as well as those who not only expressed their intentions to run in the elections, but also began collecting signatures of their potential voters. It also deals with those whose declaration of campaigning readiness marked also the end of their campaign, as they never took up any other steps in this respect, or never managed to take them up – in other words, with all those who a few months before the start of the elections declared to be running in them. And finally, it refers to the registration of “13” candidates by the National Election Commission, which marked not only the beginning, but also the end of a certain period.