Czech opposition CSSD head to be elected by congress in March

The change also extends the inner party leadership by representatives of regional governors.

The change of the statutes allows both methods of the chairperson election - direct and indirect.

The party central executive committee will have to decide 120 days ahead of any forthcoming congress which method will be applied.

The chairperson is to be elected by all party members if there are more candidates nominated by the respective party bodies, that is regional and district party conferences.

This year only the current chairman Jiri Paroubek won the nominations that were sought by no other candidates.

This is ascribed to the great success of the party in last October´s regional and Senate elections under Paroubek´s chairmanship.

The CSSD also says three to four million crowns that the direct election would cost would be waste of money.

The CSSD did not have any regional governor until last October and therefore its statutes did not speak about their representation in the party leadership.

However, since last October when it crushingly beat the ODS that had 12 out of 13 governors, the CSSD has had governors in all 13 regions.

Today, the congress decided that two top-ranking governors, the chairman of the Czech Association of Regions and his/her deputy, will sit on the party leadership.

They are South Moravian governor Michal Hasek and Pardubice governor Radko Martinek at present.

($1=22.285 crowns)

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz