Analyst: change of legislation to allow direct presidential elections unlikely
The three parties who are in the process of forming a centre-right government have agreed to try to change the Czech constitution in a way that would allow the president to be elected in a direct vote. In line with the country’s legislation, the head of state has always been elected by the two houses of Parliament in a process that involves a great deal of horse-trading. Although opinion surveys suggest that the public would prefer a direct vote all previous attempts to change the system have failed. Is a different outcome likely this time and what changes in law would be necessary? Sarah Borufka talked to political analyst Jiří Pehe.
“Well, a direct election of the president would only be possible if there was a constitutional amendment in the Czech Republic, which means that both houses of the Czech parliament would have to approve such a bill with constitutional majorities, and that is not easy to achieve in the Czech Republic, so I think it would be a difficult process.”
“Personally, I don’t think this kind of change is very plausible. I think that the parties of the possible government coalition have come forward with this proposal simply because it looks good, it is an emotional issue, and it’s something that most Czechs want and that parties keep promising.
“But the devil is in the details, because while all parties, even the Social Democrats, basically agree on it, in the end, they usually can’t agree on several issues, such as the extent of powers of the president who’d be elected directly, and the mode of the elections, such as whether it should be a one-round or two-round election, and similar issues.”
Do you think in case of a direct presidential election, the candidate would be a different one?
“I think that we would certainly see more candidates and different candidates than we would see in an election by the parliament, simply because the selection process in the parliament is quite restrictive and in the end it comes down to deciding between two or three candidates. In a direct election, I’m sure we would have many more candidates, but those who would have any real chance of being elected, would have to come through major political parties anyway and have their backing.
“I have heard many times various questions about whether this would not lead to electing a popular mass culture figure as the president, and I have to say that we have never seen anything like that in any European country. We have seen, again and again, that people are afraid that a direct election would generate a popular figure from the mass culture area, but in the end it’s always a professional politician who wins and I think it would be the same in the Czech Republic.”
