Opposition criticism dominated the debate on the correspondence election in the evening

Commercial presentation Update: 05/09/2024 22:18
Issued by: 05/09/2024, 22:15

Prague – The parliamentary debate on the introduction of the option of postal voting for Czech citizens living abroad was dominated by opposition criticism this evening. The extraordinary meeting for the second reading of the controversial coalition electoral amendment has already lasted over 11 hours, of which about 6.5 hours were taken up by opposition speakers with preferential rights before the approval of the program. At 10:00 p.m., the parliamentary system recorded 24 of the original three dozen applications for regular regular discussion.

According to ČTK, today’s business day should end around 01:00 on Friday. The meeting should then continue on Friday from 09:00.

The opposition repeatedly tested the coalition’s attention by submitting proposals to suspend the discussion of the draft until next year, or even the year after. However, MPs from the government camp always managed to gather in the meeting hall in sufficient numbers so that the opposition’s efforts to vote failed. The chairman of the KDU-ČSL club, Aleš Dufek, pointed out that he had already calculated how many counter-proposals to the opposition proposal to suspend the meeting must be heard from the coalition MPs present, so that their other colleagues could catch up. According to him, there are four to five counter-proposals.

MP Karla Maříková (SPD) believes that the correspondence election expands the scope for manipulation of election results. In addition, according to her, citizens living abroad will be at an advantage against citizens in the country, who will not be able to vote by mail. Lubomír Brož (ANO) made a similar statement, who spoke of privileged access to elections for Czechs abroad, which, according to him, violates the constitutional principle of equality. Brož also described possible violations of other constitutional rules of elections, which, according to him, can reduce public confidence in their proper course.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it ended up at the Constitutional Court again,” said Radek Koten (SPD) regarding the amendment. He submitted a proposal for its rejection, which the lower house will vote on in the third reading. ANO Member of Parliament Milan Wenzl believes that many Czech citizens living abroad have no real relationship with the Czech Republic, and therefore do not bear the consequences of their electoral decisions. According to him, the correspondence election is supposed to create an “army of five-coalition voters”.

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. The proposal concerns presidential, parliamentary and European elections. According to the draft, Czechs abroad could vote by letter for the first time in the next regular elections to the House of Representatives in 2025. The ANO movement insists on a postponement until 2026. It wants to exclude the European Parliament elections from postal voting due to the alleged greatest risk of double voting.

In the current second reading, MPs can submit amendments. The amendment of some parameters of the correspondence election has already been proposed by the constitutional and legal committee.

Czech Republic election law House of Representatives coalition AUDIO meeting OPENER