Prague, Nov 4 (CTK) – Czech Senate chairman Milan Stech (Social Democrats, CSSD) has condemned the steps taken by Jiri Hlavaty (for ANO) who wants to become a senator again after he was elected to the other house of parliament, the Chamber of Deputies, in the recent general election, he told CTK.
Hlavaty, owner of the Juta textile company, was elected senator for the ANO movement in 2014. He was among ANO’s candidates in the recent general election, but when ANO won the elections, he became a lower house deputy and his senatorial mandate thus automatically ended, he got angry and said this was a scandal. He plans to run in the competition for the post he vacated that will be held in January.
Stech said Hlavaty acts in a very embarrassing manner.
He said Hlavaty is cheating the voters.
Hlavaty even said the people who gave him their preferential vote and won him a seat in the lower house should pay the costs of the election in which he will try to regain his senatorial seat.
“Hlavaty in fact admits that he wanted to cheat the voters and that he does not respect them. He let himself be listed among the ANO candidates for the Chamber of Deputies only as an attraction for voters, although he never intended to do the job of a lower house deputy,” Stech said.
Hlavaty was the ANO candidate number 18 in one of the country’s regions. Thanks to 4,859 preferential votes he leaped over the candidates above him in the ANO list.
Hlavaty admitted after the October general election that he did no know that his senatorial mandate would automatically end. He said he could not be a lower house deputy because he had too much work to do in the Juta company.
Stech said it seems the fact that a man starts a firm and makes it prosperous is not a guarantee of his good performance in politics. At least minimum knowledge of the constitution is also required, he said.
