Prague, July 12 (CTK) – The opposition conservative TOP 09 and the extra-parliamentary Liberal Ecological Party (LES), headed by former environment minister Martin Bursik, have agreed on joint lists of candidates for the October 20-21 general election, the Aktualne.cz server reported on Wednesday.
The parties decided to cooperate not to split the votes of liberal voters. However, they will not run in a coalition.
They will officially announce the form of their election cooperation on Thursday.
Some LES members will join the TOP 09 lists of election candidates. But neither Bursik, former chairman of the Greens, nor his wife, former Green MP Katerina Jacques (now LES), will run in the elections.
“I have a feeling that Bursik does not want to run,” TOP 09 honorary chairman Karel Schwarzenberg told the server.
According to the latest opinion poll, TOP 09 would gain 6 to 7.5 percent of the vote. The latest election model of the STEM polling agency shows that TOP 09 would get 6.2 percent and ten mandates in the 200-seat lower house.
LES does not figure in opinion polls at all and its support seems to be marginal.
TOP 09 would probably not enter the Chamber of Deputies if it ran in an election coalition with LES as a two-party coalition must cross 10 percent to enter the Chamber of Deputies, while individual parties only need 5 percent.
The junior government Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) and the Mayors and Independents (STAN) movement agreed to form an election coalition previously. The polls have so far indicated that this coalition may not cross the necessary 10-percent threshold.
STAN cooperated with TOP 09 until last year.
