Czech coalition parties to discuss direct presidential elections

The coalition government of the Civic Democrats, the Christian Democrats and the Greens wants to open a discussion about direct presidential elections in accordance with their coalition agreement. If the coalition agreed on such a change, it would not yet concern next year's presidential elections. The first elections to be held under the new legislation would be those scheduled for 2013. Under current legislation, the Czech president is elected by both houses of parliament. According to the latest poll by the Mori agency, 88 percent of Czech voters believe that they should elect their president themselves. The poll also showed that 62 percent of respondents would like to see President Vaclav Klaus re-elected next year. The introduction of direct presidential elections was promised by the government of Vladimir Spidla in 2002, but the legislation was not passed at that time.