Cibulka files complaint with Constitutional Court

Prague, Dec 30 (CTK) - Petr Cibulka, former dissident and Vote the Right Bloc party chairman, filed on Friday a complaint with the Constitutional Court (US), demanding that he be returned to the first direct presidential election and that the election be adjourned until the relevant law is changed, he told CTK Saturday.

Cibulka said the law on the direct presidential election is anti-constitutional.

The candidates who were not fielded by a party had to collect minimally 50,000 citizens' signatures, but Cibulka only gathered 319 of them.

He says this condition breaches the constitutional principle of access to elected and other posts because candidates fielded by parties in parliament did not have to collect any signatures.

"It suffices if someone secures a few signatures in the Chamber of Deputies canteen while others must be collecting dozens of thousands of signatures of their supporters in the streets," Cibulka writes in the complaint.

Under the law the candidate need minimally 20 signatures of Chamber of Deputies lawmakers or ten senators, or they must collect minimally 50,000 signatures under their petitions.

Cibulka first turned to the Supreme Administrative Court (NSS), but it dismissed his complaint.

He now wants the US to order the Interior Ministry to register his rejected candidature.

The US should also abolish "the provisions of the law that are at variance with the valid constitution" and adjourn the election until parliament passes amendments to the presidential election law.

The first constitutional complaint about the presidential election was filed by senator Tomio Okamura (unaffiliated) on Thursday.

He asked the US to adjourn the election and to abolish a part of the constitution and the direct election implementing law.

He also wants to be returned to the presidential contest.

Okamura collected more than 50,000 signatures, but the total dropped below the required level when invalid signatures were subtracted.

Still before Christmas the US received two complaints about the presidential elections by unaffiliated candidates who only collected a couple of signatures and who demand a revision of the direct election legislation.

The first round of the direct election is scheduled for January 11-12 and a possible second round would be held two weeks later. Nine candidates are running in the election.

But it is not sure that the US will manage to discuss the complaints by then.

Until now Czech presidents have been elected by the two houses of parliament. The incumbent President Vaclav Klaus's second and last five-year term expires on March 7.