Czechs to elect president in January, court against adjournment

Generální sekretář Ústavního soudu Tomáš Langášek (vpravo) vystoupil 4. ledna na brífinku v Brně, který se konal po neveřejném jednání pléna Ústavního soudu. Ústavní soud odmítl návrh senátora a neregistrovaného prezidentského kandidáta Tomia Okamury na odklad prezidentské volby. Právní úpravu přímé volby budou soudci na základě Okamurovy stížnosti dál zkoumat.

published: 04.01.2013, 12:00 | updated: 04.01.2013 12:32:52

Brno - The first Czech direct presidential election will take place as scheduled later in January, the Constitutional Court (US) decided today, rejecting Senator Tomio Okamura´s proposal for the election´s adjournment, US general secretary Tomas Langasek told journalists.

The first round of the presidential election is scheduled for January 11-12, a possible second round for January 25-26.

The US will continue examining the legislation linked to direct presidential election on the basis of a complaint lodged by Okamura, a candidate for president whom the authorities previously eliminated from the contest, Langasek said after the US´s closed plenary session.

The US today also rejected as unfounded the complaints by Anna Kasna, Jiri Kesner and Petr Cibulka, who, too, wanted to run for president.

Of the four complainants, Okamura is the only one to have gathered 50,000 people´s signatures a candidate needs to be registered unless he/she is nominated by lawmakers. However, the Interior Ministry´s check showed that the number of signatures was below the limit after invalid ones were subtracted.

The US will continue dealing with Okamura´s complaint but they will not decide on it before the presidential election.

If the US judges finally complied with Okamura´s request for scrapping a part of the constitution and of the law on direct presidential election, they would have to deal with the decision´s impact on the election that would have been over by then.

Nine candidates for president seek voters´ support in the first round. Three of them have been nominated by lawmakers, the remaining six have collected people´s signatures.

In late 2012, the Interior Ministry eliminated three candidates, Okamura, businessman Vladimir Dlouhy and Sovereignty party head Jana Bobosikova, from the contest over insufficient number of valid signatures of people.

All three appealed the decision but the Supreme Administrative Court returned only Bobosikova to the contest and confirmed as rightful the elimination of Okamura and Dlouhy.

The favourites of the presidential election are former prime ministers Jan Fischer (unaffiliated) and Milos Zeman (PM for Social Democrats, now Citizens´ Rights Party, SPOZ), public opinion polls have shown.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz

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