Gov't parties nod to part of revised coalition agreement

Prague, Jan 22 (CTK) - The negotiators of the three Czech government parties preliminarily approved the chapters focusing on public administration, anti-corruption struggle, legislation and public tenders of their revised coalition agreement Tuesday, they told journalists.

There are still some unresolved points that will be discussed by the leaders of the Civic Democrats (ODS), TOP 09 and LIDEM, the negotiators said.

LIDEM chairwoman Karolina Peake said one of the disputed issues is her party's demand that people should submit property statements when they are appointed to a high political post.

Peake said the negotiations did not reach agreement on a possible direct election of mayors as this would require a constitutional amendment and an extensive amendment to the law on municipalities.

Jaromir Drabek (TOP 09) said his party would like to introduce electronic voting but that the ODS did not support the idea.

Zbynek Stanjura (ODS) said the ODS proposed ten points but most of them were related to economy and would be discussed next week.

Stanjura said the coalition parties still have different attitudes to the possible merging and cancelling of some ministries.

The next meeting of the ODS, TOP 09 and LIDEM negotiating teams will be held on Thursday.

The issues that remain open will be dealt with by the coalition leaders, probably at the sidelines of the plenary session of the lower house of parliament in February.

The revised coalition agreement will be shorter than the original one because the new version will not include the points that have already been fulfilled and those that the government would not have enough time to meet by the end of its election term in mid-2014.

Peake said the revised agreement will be a list of priorities for the end of the election period.