Prague, Nov 10 (CTK) – Czech presidential candidate Mirek Topolanek, former Civic Democrat (ODS) prime minister, did not manage to register his election account in time, and moreover, it is not transparent, iRozhlas.cz server of public Czech Radio wrote on Friday.
Topolanek registered the account with the Ceska sporitelna bank.
Consequently, he faces a fine of up to 500,000 crowns from the Office Supervising the Financial Management of Political Parties and Movements.
Topolanek’s team claims that this is caused by the fact that the respective law does not count with a candidacy announced at the very last moment.
Ceska sporitelna spokesman Filip Hruby told CTK that Ceska sporitelna had published the transparent account on Friday.
This occurred less than 72 hours after it received the request.
Topolanek has some 120,000 crowns on the account, while he sent 100,000 crowns to it himself and received the rest from donors, Hruby said.
Topolanek submitted his presidential bid supported by signatures of ten senators on Tuesday when the deadline expired at 16:00, and he opened his transparent account on the same day, the server writes.
However, the Office Supervising the Financial Management of Political Parties and Movements has not received an application for registration from him yet.
“The deadline for submitting a transparent account expired on Tuesday along with the deadline for handing in an application (for presidential election) to the Interior Ministry, and only if the candidate did not express his will to run for president clearly by then,” said office member Jiri Navratil.
The office will seek a way of solving the situation, Navratil said.
He added that in his opinion the candidate had not met his duty and some sanctions should follow.
Dalibor Vermirovsky, member of Topolanek’s team, said the application for Topolanek’s registration, including the number of his transparent account, was sent to the office on Thursday.
“The application does not include a link to the transparent account that will be added as soon as we receive it from the bank,” Vermirovsky said.
Hruby said Topolanek had opened an account in the bank on November 7, while the standard period to make the account transparent is two weeks. It is possible to cut it if the client asks for this, but Mr Topolanek is not do so, he added.
Vermirovsky said he had contacted a representative of the Office Supervising the Financial Management of Political Parties and Movements to explain the situation.
“The whole affair is caused by the decision to run at the last moment with which the law does not count,” he concluded.
The Office Supervising the Financial Management of Political Parties and Movements has worked since January and it is dealing with a presidential election for the first time.
