LIVE: Deputies continue to discuss the correspondence election | iRADIO

“It’s something unprecedented, but let’s be honest. You want to go to hockey. That’s the whole truth. You have convened an extraordinary meeting and that is more important to you,” criticized the procedure of the coalition of ANO deputies Alena Schillerová.

At the same time, she asked for the convocation of the leadership of the House. The meeting was originally suspended until 1:37 p.m. After that, however, the time was moved several times, the meeting of the lower chamber finally continued from 2:20 p.m.

The restriction of the general debate was proposed by the chairman of the ODS deputies, Marek Benda, who described the current discussion of the amendment on the correspondence election for Czechs abroad as “very undignified”. “Many hours were spent in idle talk,” he remarked.

He also pointed out that the opposition is repeatedly trying to postpone the discussion of the amendments, even though it knows that it has no chance of success.

To shorten the general debate in the second round of discussion, the coalition used an unconventional procedure, when Ondřej Lochman (STAN) proposed that at its conclusion, a vote be taken to return the electoral amendment to the constitutional-legal committee for a new discussion. Thanks to this, Benda was able to propose to the Chamber to set a fixed time for this vote at 18.00.

After the so-called general debate, however, there is still a detailed debate, in which deputies sign up for amendments. That’s why the coalition, at Bend’s suggestion, also pushed for the possibility of another night meeting of the lower chamber in case the detailed debate drags on, in which seven MPs are registered so far.

The number of applications for the general debate dropped from 22 to 21 in the morning, also due to the reappearance of speakers with priority rights.

The chairman of the constitutional and legal committee, Radek Vondráček (ANO), objected that Bend’s proposal is “an innovation that has not happened in 30 years”. Vondráček recalled that the general debate in the second reading of drafts serves to introduce amendments. Now, according to him, it may happen that some deputies will not get a chance to properly justify their adjustments.

Testing coalitional attention

Right at the beginning of Friday’s meeting Schiller triedto take advantage of the low number of MPs in the meeting hall and unsuccessfully requested the postponement of the discussion until the beginning of September this year.

“Is this how you do things here? This is truly incredible what you are performing here. You keep the employees here until one in the morning and then you are not even able to come to work at nine for an extraordinary meeting called by you, which we do not want,” said the boss MPs YES. The government camp accompanied her words by banging the benches.

Similar attempts to postpone the meeting also accompanied Thursday’s opening day of the second reading of the amendment, in which deputies can propose amendments to the draft.

The opposition repeatedly tried to attract the attention of the coalition. However, the members of the governing majority always managed to gather in the meeting hall in sufficient numbers so that the opposition’s efforts to postpone the debate in the vote failed.

Criticism of the opposition

Criticism from opposition representatives was linked by repeated claims that the postal election is expedient and does not guarantee compliance with the constitutional principle of equality, directness and secrecy of voting.

Schiller’s speech was no exception, as on Friday and Thursday she used the opportunity to speak with priority speaking rights. “The proposed form of postal election will cripple our electoral system and threaten confidence in elections. And it will deprive the Czech Republic of a democratic certainty of incalculable value,” she declared. According to her, behind the postal election is the coalition’s attempt to influence the election result in its favor.

Another speaker with the right of priority, SPD leader Tomio Okamura, expressed himself similarly to Schiller. According to him, the proposed form of voting by mail is a “purposeful legislative scum”, according to Okamura, it will weaken trust in democracy.

He sees the coalition’s attempt to improve the election result “by a few votes from abroad” behind the blueprint. In addition, the chairman of the SPD believes that this is the first step towards the introduction of postal elections in the Czech Republic as well. Possible massive manipulation of votes would then only arouse massive resistance, which could lead to civil war, he warned.

According to the opposition, postal voting will reduce the credibility of the election, as it will not be certain whether voters at home were not influenced.

The government coalition therefore suggested that in such a case the decision could be changed by the voter personally voting at the embassy. His correspondence vote will not be counted.

According to the coalition draft, Czech citizens who will be entered in the voter list at the locally competent embassy could use the correspondence election from abroad.

They would then be able to vote by mail in the presidential, European and parliamentary elections, for the first time in those that will be held next autumn.

The ANO movement, which, like the SPD, failed in the previous parliamentary elections among Czechs abroad, advocates postponing the effectiveness of the proposal to the beginning of 2026.

He wants to exclude elections to the European Parliament from postal voting due to the alleged greatest risk of double voting. He wants to limit postal voting to those Czech citizens living abroad who have a permanent residence in the Czech Republic, property or pay taxes or levies. SPD representatives have repeatedly proposed rejecting the electoral amendment.

Daniela Tollingerová, CTK

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