Czech ODS voters want election congress, new leadership-poll

Předseda ODS Mirek Topolánek 16. září v Praze na tiskové konferenci po mimořádném zasedání výkonné rady ODS k aktuální politické situaci.

published: 19.11.2009, 20:32 | updated: 19.11.2009 20:36:23

59% voličů ODS chce volební kongres a 77% nové vedení

Prague - About three-fifths (59 percent) of voters of the Czech Civic Democrats (ODS) want the party's forthcoming national congress to be an electoral one, and 77 percent of them want the party to have a new leadership, an online poll by the SANEP agency has shown.

ODS chairman Mirek Topolanek said last week that if the congress, due on November 21-22, became an electoral one, he would not seek re-election.

He said he would consider even a vote taken on him as an expression of mistrust.

The party plans the congress not to be electoral. Several party branches, nevertheless, want the opposite, while some ODS officials propose that another, electoral congress be held in early 2010.

According to SANEP, "a crushing majority of ODS voters" wish the party to have a new chairperson. Almost four-fifths of the respondents reportedly said this.

Topolanek enjoys confidence of 21 percent of ODS voters, while 64 percent said he harms the party, according to SANEP.

The poll has shown, however, that ODS voters are dissatisfied with the ODS leadership and with Topolanek, but do not know who the new chairman should be.

Asked to choose from among several possible candidates, most respondents (13 percent) paradoxically said they preferred Topolanek. Twelve percent said they would like chairmanship to go to Pavel Bem, mayor of Prague and another 12 percent mentioned Jiri Pospisil, former justice minister. Other candidates gained even lower support.

SANEP conducted the poll on November 13-17 on 2,700 ODS voters.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz

Back

Tags: Topolanek, ODS, congress,