Civic Democrat Miroslava Němcová elected as speaker of the lower house of Parliament

The vice-chair of the Civic Democratic Party, Miroslava Němcová, has been elected speaker of the lower house of Parliament. All 200 members of the Chamber of Deputies were present for the secret ballot, in which Ms Němcová received 118 votes, or the exact number of members from the emerging coalition. The runner-up for the position, Lubomír Zaorálek of the Social Democratic Party, received 79 votes. He was elected later Thursday afternoon as deputy speaker, a post which he held in the previous Parliament. The other two deputy speakers will be Vlasta Parkanová of TOP 09 and Kateřina Klasnová of Public Affairs.