ODS presidential candidate will support popular election of MPs

Prague, Aug 17 (CTK) - Premysl Sobotka, Czech Senate deputy head and the senior ruling Civic Democrats' (ODS) candidate for president, Friday said he is for deputies not being elected as part of political parties' list of candidates but as individual personalities, as is the case of senators.

If elected president, Sobotka, 68, would also be opposed to the Czech Republic abandoning the crown and introducing the euro, he told journalists at the ceremonial opening of his office ahead of the early 2013 presidential polls.

"I want to open a debate on a direct election of deputies, so that the lower house's 200 members are elected in 50,000-strong election constituencies. Every citizen would choose his/her deputy, instead of the current practice of people choosing a party's list of candidates with unknown persons figuring as high as in the third or fourth positions," Sobotka said.

He said he has come up with the proposal on his own, without the ODS having discussed it.

"I've announced it [in the ODS) and I haven't met with any negative reactions," he told CTK.

Sobotka repeated that he is not going to collect 50,000 people's signatures a candidate in the direct presidential election needs because he is sure of the ODS deputies and senators' support. He will use the parliamentary approval of his candidacy, which he expects in November, he said.

For his/her candidacy to be registered, a contestant needs signatures of either 50,000 people or 20 deputies or 10 senators.

The ODS, which chose Sobotka for its candidate in the primaries earlier this year, has 51 deputies and 24 senators.

Sobotka is not among the presidential election favourites for now, according to public opinion polls. He said Friday that the campaign ahead of the election is yet to start and it will bring a change to the present situation.

The ODS previously decided to earmark 15 million crowns for Sobotka's campaign.

Sobotka also wants to establish an open account for his supporters to contribute to.

Sobotka cooperates with an ODS's election team of assistants. He said he will appear at ODS-organised public events before the October regional and Senate polls, but would simultaneously conduct his own contact campaign.

($1=20.281 crowns)