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Czech police shelve alleged bribery case at presidential elections ... Klaus defended his post against economist Jan Svejnar whom he narrowly defeated in the third round of the election in February. Politicians started discussing a direct election during the previous indecisive rounds when it seemed that MPs would not be able to agree on a presidential candidate. The next presidential election is due in 2013. The Justice Ministry prepared the rules for one-round, two-round and three-round elections. The ministry says the advantage of the one-round majority system is that strong, quality personalities tend to be elected under it as the system avoids negative voting - voters do not support a candidate only because they dislike his or her opponent. A candidate would need at least 12.5 percent of the vote to win, according to the ministry's proposal. On the other hand, the one-round system's weakness is that the election may not produce a winner and would need to be repeated. This risk is lowered in the two-round and three-round systems where the two candidates with the highest support from voters advance to a second round and the more successful of them then becomes president. If both candidates receive an equal number of votes, the ministry offers two possible solution - either a third round would decide or the person who got more votes in the first round would win. Pospisil said earlier that the amendment to the constitutional law on presidential elections would not introduce any changes in the current powers of the president. The government bill on direct presidential election was worked out at the initiative of the junior ruling Greens (SZ). However, the government coalition parties are not united in the method of direct presidential election and the president's powers.
While the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL) want to preserve the current powers, the ODS is considering extending them. The opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) submitted their own bill on direct presidential elections earlier this year. To be passed in parliament, the bill needs to be backed by three-fifths of the MPs. Most Czechs support direct presidential election.
(Ceske Noviny)
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