Prague, Nov 19 (CTK) – Tomas Pajonk, a regional assemblyman in Zlin, south Moravia, became new head of the Free Citizens’ Party, the strongest Czech extra-parliamentary party in terms of election results, winning the online vote of the party’s members on Sunday, its spokesman Martin Rumler has told CTK.
Pajonk was supported by 233 of 451 voting members, defeating the party’s former chairman Petr Mach.
Mach, who headed the Free Citizens’ Party since its establishment in 2009, was supported by 106 members in the vote that started on November 12, while 96 supported MEP Jiri Payne.
Fourteen votes were gained by party member Daniel Urban and two votes by Tomas Michalicka.
Pajonk, 36, has chaired the Free Citizens’ Party branch in the Zlin Region so far.
He is married and runs an IT business.
Members are invited to choose the party’s four deputy chairpersons in an online vote on November 22-29. Candidates can submit their bids by Monday, November 20.
For the time being, the post of deputy chairperson has been sought by nine people, whose identity Rumler would not reveal.
He said some of the unsuccessful candidates for chairman will probably join the list of candidates for a deputy chairperson.
The founding fathers who established the Free Citizens’ Party in 2009 were mainly former members of the Civic Democrats Party (ODS).
In June 2014, Mach was elected a MEP. He left the post this summer in order to fully focus on the campaign before the Czech October 20-21 general election.
With its 1.56-percent election gain, the party failed to enter the Chamber of Deputies, but still it is the only extra-parliamentary party to have crossed the 1.5 percent limit that makes it eligible for state subsidies.
