Prague, March 2 (CTK) – A number of senior police officers, including former police president Martin Cervicek, will run in the Czech regional elections set for this autumn, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes on Wednesday.
In the past, parties used to have scores of doctors and academics to impress voters, but now they have started choosing their candidates among the police, MfD writes.
The right-wing opposition Civic Democratic Party (ODS) has chosen Cervicek, Finance Minister Andrej Babis’s ANO has nominated Bohumil Simek, director of the municipal police in Brno, and the governing Social Democrats Tomas Martinec, former head of the anti-corruption team, it adds.
The former two will be nominated as number ones on their parties’ tickets, MfD writes.
The parties have fielded them in the expectation that due to the ongoing migrant crisis, security issues are of major importance for voters, it adds.
“The issue seems to be dominant, pushing aside the health care that was vital in previous elections,” sociologist Jan Herzmann is quoted as saying.
“Former police officers and security experts are the type of men that are now attracting voters, like doctors and school principals,” he added.
Simek, who will head the ANO ticket in south Moravia, said the expected debate on the migrant crisis and security was one of the reasons for which he had been addressed by ANO.
“I also think this is one of the reasons for ANO to select me,” Simek said.
“Due to its relation to the migrant crisis, the security issue will be vital,” he added.
“I am not the only one from security bodies to be involved in the issue. Due to this, other parties, too, have wagered on this,” Simek said, citing Martinek and Cervicek.
Due to his forthcoming political career, Cervicek will have to take off the police uniform, MfD writes.
He will soon leave the post of regional police chief in the Hradec Kralove Region.
“I think that at the time when security issues are among the crucial ones, it is certainly good to gain such a man for the election ticket,” ODS leader Petr Fiala is quoted as saying.
Martinec will run in the Vysocina Region, but not among the first ten candidates on the Social Democrat ticket, MfD writes.
