Bill on postal voting rights for Czechs abroad passes in first reading in Senate

The Senate has approved –in its first reading - a bill that would give Czechs abroad postal voting rights in parliamentary and presidential elections. The bill, submitted by fifty senators, will now be debated in the individual Senate committees. If approved the bill would take effect next year.

The Czech Republic is one of the last five EU countries that do not yet have voting by mail. Postal voting would benefit around 600,000 Czechs who live abroad. At present they can only vote at embassies, which is costly and time consuming. Earlier this year Czechs living overseas launched a campaign in support of postal voting, tracking kilometers they have run or walked – to highlight the distances they often have to cover in order to cast their ballot.