The correspondence option is back. “They can’t do it at home, so they go abroad,” says ANO

On Thursday, at an extraordinary meeting, the monitored law on postal voting, i.e. the possibility to vote from abroad, will be returned to the Chamber of Deputies. The coalition of five wants to move the legislation forward despite the constant opposition of the ANO and SPD movements. At the same time, in the so-called second reading of the electoral amendment, deputies will be able to submit amendments, and it is therefore a question of what form the law will eventually pass.

The amendment of some parameters of the correspondence election has already been proposed by the constitutional and legal committee. However, the coalition and the opposition continue to disagree on its compliance with the constitution. The opposition movements ANO and SPD claim that voting by mail may be contrary to the principles of secret, free and personal elections. The opening parliamentary debate on the proposal in the plenary took up six working days, also due to opposition obstructions, and lasted approximately 63.5 hours of net time.

At the same time, the committee has already indicated some changes. Above all, in April he supported the amendment to count votes from abroad in four instead of two regions. Political parties could nominate their representatives to election commissions at embassies. The committee supported a total of six changes to the coalition electoral amendment.

The legal committee also wants a voter abroad to be able to pick up voting kits for a maximum of seven other people at the embassy on the basis of full powers. Even if the voter votes by mail, he should be able to vote in person at the embassy. Personal choice should take precedence over correspondence. The countries in which voting by mail will be possible and in which it will not be determined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by its decree, but by the government by its regulation. In addition, the legal committee proposed to modify the criminal offense of disrupting elections with regard to postal voting.

Coalition MPs have long argued for maximizing the voting rights of Czechs abroad. The opposition still rejects the law. According to critics, this is because they have only minimal support abroad, and are thus afraid of the effect that postal voting would bring. “Our position is still the same, we see this as a desperate attempt to influence the election setup to help the existing government coalition. They won’t succeed with the domestic ones, so they go to agitate beyond the borders, when they check them there, they propose to lower the voting age, then I expect Ukrainian refugees,” Karel Havlíček, vice-chairman of the ANO movement, told Echo24.

“In our opinion, it is extremely stupid to fundamentally change the electoral system in this way and thus undermine citizens’ trust in elections,” he adds. The leader of ANO deputies, Alena Schillerová, points out that the opposition will react according to the behavior of the governing majority. “The discussion will correspond to the fact that the coalition of five is vigorously pushing its proposal to distort the electoral system in the Czech Republic, bypassing the comment procedure and government legislation, as well as state authorities,” he says.

It also threatens possible obstructions. “Given that the Constitution requires that the election be personal, free and its secrecy is guaranteed, which this proposal undermines, we cannot rule out obstruction if necessary,” she noted.

However, recent examples from Austria, when the elections in 2016 had to be repeated due to errors in the counting of these votes, may raise concerns about postal elections.

The financial costs of the correspondence election are also discussed. A few years ago, the Ministry of the Interior, under the leadership of ex-chairman of the Social Democracy Jan Hamáček, calculated them at an amount exceeding 100 million.

According to some experts, the correspondence option would rather help. Roman Chytilek, a political scientist from Brno’s Masaryk University, wrote this recently. With its introduction, elections will become more accessible to citizens of the Czech Republic than at present, he said. According to estimates, over 100,000 people with a Czech passport who live abroad could use the new option.

“The availability of elections is currently very good for voters living permanently in the Czech Republic, because we have a dense network of electoral districts. In general, elections should ideally be equally accessible to every citizen of the Czech Republic – and postal voting will help that,” said Chytilek.

Constitutional lawyer Marek Antoš believes that the proposal for correspondence elections only addresses the situation of voters who are abroad for a long time, but does not allow voting for people who need to be on a shorter study stay, holiday or work trip. According to him, the numbers show that such cases make up half of the potential voters.

According to the draft, Czech citizens who will be entered in the voter list at the locally competent embassy could use the correspondence election from abroad. The proposal concerns presidential, parliamentary and European elections.

For the first time, according to the draft, Czechs abroad would be able to vote by letter in the next regular elections to the House of Representatives in 2025. Because of this, during the first parliamentary reading, opposition MPs accused the coalition of purposefully trying to win new voters. Representatives of the government camp insist on the effective date. In the first reading, the opposition movement signaled that they should try to impress voters abroad so that it would be more successful for them.

Even if the voter voted by mail, he would have the right to vote later in person at the embassy. Personal choice should take precedence over correspondence. A postal vote would be disqualified and therefore not counted. The measure is related to the possible influence of the voter during postal voting by his surroundings. The legal committee also wants political parties to be able to nominate their representatives to election commissions at embassies. The countries in which voting by mail will be possible and in which it will not be determined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by its decree, but by the government by its regulation. In addition, the Legal Committee suggested amending the criminal offense of disrupting elections with regard to postal voting.