Dates set for direct presidential election

Prague, Oct 1 (CTK) - The first Czech direct presidential election will be held on January 11-12, 2013, Senate chairman Milan Stech announced yesterday.

Unless no candidate is elected in the first round, the successor to current President Vaclav Klaus, whose second term expires in March, will be held two weeks later.

An absolute majority of votes is needed in the first round of the election. The two candidates with the highest number of votes advance to the second round.

The name of the new Czech president should be known on January 26, 2013, at the latest.

Presidential candidates will now have five weeks to officially submit their candidatures by the November 6 deadline.

The candidates who have not been proposed by 10 senators or 20 members of the Chamber of Deputies must collect 50,000 citizens' signatures, under the election law.

The Interior Ministry will check by November 23 the candidatures to see that they comply with the law.

This will be the first direct presidential election. Until now Czech presidents have been elected by the two houses of parliament.

Twenty-five bidders have shown interest in running in the presidential election, but only six of them have met the conditions, according to available information.

They are Jiri Dienstbier, opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) deputy chairman, Karel Schwarzenberg, government TOP 09 chairman and foreign minister, and Premysl Sobotka, deputy chairman of the senior government Civic Democrats (ODS) and Senate chairman, all of whom have been fielded by their parties.

Former CSSD chairman Milos Zeman, who has been fielded by his new entity, the extra-parliamentary Party of Citizens' Rights (SPOZ), has also collected more than 80,000 signatures.

Zeman was unsuccessfully running for president ten years ago already.

Former caretaker prime minister Jan Fischer, who together with Zeman is a favourite of the direct election, has also collected the required number of signatures.

Recently, Jana Bobosikova, former MEP who was nominated for presidency by the Communists (KSCM) five years ago, announced she has the required number of signatures as well.