Olomouc, North Moravia, April 2 (CTK) – Ivan Bartos, 36, was elected chairman of the Czech Pirate Party again by the delegates to its national forum and members voting on the Internet on Saturday.
Bartos, who headed Pirates from 2009 until 2014, defeated Petr Bajgar in the first round.
Bartos resigned from the party’s helm in reaction to the result of the European Parliament (EP) election in May 2014, in which the Pirates ended closely below the 5-percent threshold.
He kept working in the party as a rank-and-file member and later as a member of the national committee and head of the media section.
In his speech before the leadership election, Bartos called the Pirates a party of innovative people who were trying to follow new paths.
In the upcoming autumn regional election, the Pirates plan to run in all regions, either alone or in a joint ballot with other parties or groups, such as the Greens, Bartos said.
The Czech Pirate Party was established in June 2009 after the success of similar entities abroad. It has 436 members now.
Its aim is to promote the right to a free dissemination of information and a strict protection of privacy in the information society of the 21st century.
In the election to the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, in October 2013, the Pirate Party gained 2.66 percent of the vote and in the EP election a year later, it was 4.78 percent.
In the 2014 election to the Prague Assembly, the Pirates won four out of 65 seats. They have also 29 representatives at town halls and the post of mayor of Marianske Lazne, west Bohemia.
Libor Michalek, a joint candidate of Pirates, Greens and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), was elected to the Senate, the upper house of parliament. The Pirates also supported another two senators.
