Prague, Nov 15 (CTK) – Eleven contenders for the Czech presidential post have not met the legal requirements either because their bids are not supported by signatures of enough lawmakers or people or because they submitted their bid too late, the Interior Ministry writes on its website on Wednesday.
This failure cannot be corrected. None of the rejected contenders belongs to the candidates who seem to have a chance to win the direct presidential election.
This means that nine people are likely to run for president in January.
The Interior Ministry is to officially announce which candidates were confirmed and which rejected only on November 24.
The ministry writes that the following presidential candidates failed to meet the requirements: Petr Blaha, Daniel Felkel, Oldrich Fiala, Roman Hladik, Terezie Holovska, Libor Hrancik, David Chadim, Anna Kasna, Martin Ludacka, Karel Svetnicka and Josef Toman.
The bids of six of the above contenders also failed to meet some other formal requirements.
Toman claimed that he sent signatures of 75,000 people in support of his bid to the ministry by mail, but the ministry said there are only 11 signatures under his bid. Holovska’s bid was signed by one person and Hladik’s by 18 people.
Out of the nine candidates who have probably met the requirements, three submitted signatures of more than 50,000 people – incumbent President Milos Zeman who is the election’s favourite, Science Academy former head Jiri Drahos and entrepreneur Michal Horacek who are among his most popular rivals.
Three candidates received support from at least 10 senators – former diplomat Pavel Fischer, activist Marek Hilser and former prime minister Mirek Topolanek. Three other gained support from at least 20 lower house members – Skoda Auto car maker former chief Vratislav Kulhanek, arms industry official Jiri Hynek and marginal party’s head Petr Hannig.
